The project asked for a complete redesign of the street fence and entrance of Villa Arito, a house built in 1986 in the neighborhood of La Levantina in Sitges, a town located 36km south from Barcelona.

Back when the house was built the area had a very low density of population, with just a few houses popping out in a landscape otherwise dominated by vines. Parking your car on the street right in front of your house was not a problem. The area however became more and more popular with time, houses took over the rural landscape and car transit started to increase. The C-32 highway was built for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games making Sitges just a 30 minutes’ drive from the city and therefore a preferred location on only for vacation but for people who will go to work to Barcelona every day. Cars now need to be park inside and security has become a main concern with eastern European band breaking into homes more and more often, especially during the summer season.

When built in 1986 the street fence was given a “wave” shape inspired by the fence that Gaudi designed for the “Finca Miralles” in Barcelona in 1901, and the house quickly became known in the neighborhood by the particular shape of its fence. The increase in population and traffic however made the old fence vulnerable in terms of security and impractical in terms of everyday use, since the car entry doors had to be open by hand, creating the need for the redesign.

The new design aims to keep the essence of the wavy fence that had given the house its character by incorporating it into the new entry roof, while adopting straighter lines for the fence itself that would address the security issue.