The house is located in a slopy terrain which has the virtue to be localised in a fairly high topographic altitude, due to this, with visual orientation to the litoral mountain range, the urban center and the sea. It also takes part in the formation of Vallpineda residential area, one of the first urbanisations that were developed in the city of Sitges.
The hotel, which reopens under ME by Melia, will be replete in the style associated with the brand, and at the same time bring new life and splendour to this historic establishment.
The Barcelonese studio Lagranja Design has carried out the transformation of this historic building, which is situated on the Sitges esplanade. Artisan materials have inspired the interior and creative processes, in order to create one-off pieces of contemporary style that still maintain a traditional quality.
It is said that it was in Sitges that the Spanish term ‘chiringuito’ (open-air beach bar) first appeared, a concept imported by returning émigrés from Cuba during an epoch in which artists and the avant-garde where inspired by the town’s light and charm. The first Hotel Terramar (now the ME Sitges Terramar) opened its doors in the 1930s, when tourism here was dominated by the chattering classes. Back then, the establishment had extensive gardens and formal salons, of which very few architectural details remain. Mass tourism of the 1960s brought on another transformation, which converted the hotel into a beach holiday resort typical of the period. One of the challenges for Lagranja Design was to return the lost spirit of grandeur to the hotel, and at the same time respect the identity and signature touches of the ME by Melia brand, along with creating a contemporary new leisure experience by the Mediterranean.
The site is located in an urban residential low density area surrounded by natural green areas near the sea. A large part of this sector is composed of plots with significant slopes.
The observation of the site and immediate surroundings and distant highlighted that most of the houses that were built or being built in the area followed the same premise: place it in the top of plot – filling the land where the buildings are located, through the widest possible cross-volume, leaving the rest of the site as a garden with difficult use and difficult relationship with the living spaces. Resulting in a disproportionately large number of houses, that are not integrated with the environment.
Studio Sitges is a live/work space for a photographer and his family. Located three blocks from the
Mediterranean Sea, the building captures the casual energy of this cosmopolitan beach town thirty minutes from Barcelona.
The house is zoned vertically, with two large below-grade photography studios anchoring the building, a main floor for entertaining both large and small groups, and private areas above. A glass elevator moves between floors and culminates in an intimate rooftop atelier. Kundig describes the whole house as a studio—a space in which things can happen.
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