Tenerife Church Building, Canary Island Architecture, Islas Canarias, San Cristóbal

Tenerife Church : Islas Canarias Arquitectura

San Cristóbal church Building, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain design by FAM architects

17 Dec 2007

Location: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, northeast Tenerife, España

Design: FAM, architects

San Cristóbal church Tenerife

AUTHORS: FAM

PROJECT: International ideas competition for the rehabilitation of the San Agustín complex in San Cristóbal de La Laguna. 1st PRIZE

LOCATION: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife.

YEAR: 2005

The contest plot is proposed as a unitary set that offers permanent and continuous activity for the city, in addition to punctual uses of great affluence such as large conferences and seminars.

We propose as the main generator of activity a MEDIATECA space that solves the lack of places of cultural search, investigation, management of audiovisual media, and supply the need that exists between the inhabitants of La Laguna and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, for a place for culture, where, apart from activities directed from the center’s management, the desire to see, hear, read, and speak is satisfied.

In short, a place for the cultural development of each and every one of the inhabitants.

The proposal respects the previous restoration in the precinct that made up the former convent of San Agustín, but rejects the need to use the best space (the church) for intermittent use such as conference and congress rooms, placing it in the minor courtyard historical for the whole. In this way, this place is highlighted; currently hidden; respecting the roof plant, and placing it as one of the four important points of the program.

A unitary complex is built with the ruins of the church. The practice of austerity and forced rudeness in an environment like this, the one Common World Heritage city of the Canary Islands, leads to an appreciation of materials and solutions with a special character of nudity and constructive sincerity, but slave to other interests such as environmental quality, the introduction of light or the achievement of a spatial argument in a building complex almost always lacking it.

San Cristóbal church Tenerife images / information from FAM architects

Tenerife church building design : estudio de arquitectura fam

Location: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, southwestern Europe