This housing group was planned, in two phases, as the beginning of a series of operations aimed at transforming the image of María Jiménez, a marginal neighbourhood of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife situated on the edge of a ravine in the massif of Anaga grown practically from self-construction.
This enclave presented a big challenge because of the important visual impact produced from the nearby dual carriageway that connects the city to Las Teresitas beach, and any operation that was planned would have a great effect on the appearance of the location. The piece of the first phase was planned, from the exterior, with clear rigour in its composition: the building had to be the billboard for the image of the area. Even though the first impression appears to be a conventional block, the trapezoidal shape of the plot required a meticulous distribution of the flats. The result was a piece on a stony base guided by phenolic shutters made to look like scales and a all sorts of spaces according to the different uses.
The second phase is put together with two net volumes separated by a landscaped space sitting on the same stony base as the first phase.
TECHNICAL DATA: Year 1995-1997. Location: María Jiménez, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Architects: Antonio Corona Bosch, Arsenio Pérez Amaral, Eustaquio Martínez García. Client: Viviendas Municipales de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Collaborators: Dionisio Castro (Structures), IHD Ingenieros (Engineering), DD7 (Quantity Surveyors). Photography: José Ramón Oller, Jordi Bernardo.
