In moving from an apartment in bustling Barcelona to Matadepera, a quiet village roughly 45 minutes away by car, one could assume you’d easily find more privacy. But that wasn’t so for Gloria, Jordi, and their two children, who built their first home on a lot shared with in-laws.

To design a home that felt independent without being closed off, they turned to Alventosa Morell Arquitectes—close friends and experienced collaborators. “The challenge was to find a balance between maintaining the privacy of the home and the physical and emotional connection with the other nearby family homes,” says Xavier Morell Jané, one of the studio’s cofounders.

The solution is a 1,539-square-foot plan made up of nine interlocking boxes that create a kind of diamond-shaped Tetris block—a staggered form that achieves proximity to nature and privacy while bringing in abundant natural light. It also preserves groves of holm oaks and olive trees to the west and south, which provide additional privacy from the two other family homes on the property.

The house is built using locally sourced brick, selected less for aesthetic reasons (though it does have a dazzling, earthy-red hue with variations of muted orange, beige, and dusty pink) and more for being economical and energy efficient. “Brick is very easy to build with it—you don’t need specialized labor,” says Jané, adding that it’s a common building style in the area. “It was also important to the couple that the house was built by someone from the community,” she says.

There is no designated front or back. Instead, the house invites approach from multiple directions. The northeast facade, which faces the street, is somewhat closed off. But the southwest side has multiple double doors that connect with patios and gardens, accessed via pathways.

As the family settles in, they’ve found their own rhythms with the different sides of the house: “In the back, the kids play hockey or other sports,” says Jordi. “We use the sunniest side in winter and the shadier one in summer.” It’s also about privacy, he adds: they’ll use certain sides of the home depending on whether they want to engage with their in-laws.

Inside, volta catalan ceilings—ceramic barrel vaults common in the region—complement polished concrete floors and provide visual relief from the brick patterning. At the center of the home, a glass atrium rises above the roofline, creating a lofty, light-filled living space that can bring in breezes via operable clerestory windows.

In the bedrooms, sliding wood doors allow for flexibility and quiet, especially when Gloria or Jordi—both of whom work from home—need focus. “We live everywhere; there is no unused space,” Gloria says. “Everything has its time, and everything can be used if you need it. The kids play in the central room, and the living room becomes a giant bed for our daughter’s sleepovers.”

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Project Credits:

Architect: Alventosa Morell Arquitectes / @alventosamorell

Builder: Obres i Serveis Lujano

Structural Engineer: Diagonal Arquitectura

Technical Architect: Iñaki Gonzalez