Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Archello Awards 2026 · Enter your projects before 30 September 2026
Casa CARTA
Flavio Dorta

New Fencing and Universal accessibility in Casa de Carta MHA Museum

The Casa de Carta, current site of theMuseum of History and Anthropology of Tenerife, has been declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Cultural interest Asset) because it is considered one of the exemplary buildings of the great historical rural estates of Tenerife, as well as a notable example of the stately homes built in the Canary Islands in the 18th century. Thus, the Project involved designing a fence in accordance with the protection level of the building, and creating universal accessibility to the Museum from a public road.

photo_credit Flavio Dorta
Flavio Dorta
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In general terms, the Project aims to respond to the stimulating references of the local
landscape, drawing inspiration from the agricultural use of the territory, whose productive aspirations paradoxically achieve a result of great aesthetic value. Therefore, we used scraped concrete of varying intensity as a reference to basaltic stone, iron work and galvanized tructure as allusions to the green houses that are so prevalent in the area, and wind breakwalls that relate directly to the traditional island crop enclosures.
The fencing for the botanical area is resolved with a galvanized steelmesh anchored in
concrete walls, allowing transparency of the natural spectacle and acting as a trellis for
climbing plant species that will gradually complete it over time.

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For the rest of the fencing, a wind break wall inspired by traditional agricultural enclosures was proposed. This is a textured concrete wall, stained black—mimicking the texture of basaltic stone, which is very present in traditional architecture—sprinkled with a pattern of inclined drilled holes in alternating slopes, creating diverse shading and offering a modern image strongly linked to the local agricultural landscape.

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To address accessibility, a zigzag pedestrian path was designed to resolve the difference in levels, leading to a small existing square, whose central position is ideal for distributing the different flows within the Museum. The ramps include banisters with doublé handrails and integrated grazing lighting. Between them, taking advantage of the resulting curved plane, we placed a basaltic Stone rubble embankment, punctuated only by small basins with cacti, which over the years will offer a landscape rooted in the new public access.

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Finally, the new Access to the Museum occurs at the intersection of the two types of
fencing, with the pergola—a landscaped slab sheltering group of visitors—standing out as a key element, and subtly extending as an architectural and vegetal attraction.

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