area 105 | artificial landscape

architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture

location: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

year: 2000

This project is situated in the framework of the “Las Teresitas” beach redevelopment in Santa Cruz Tenerife. Following a competition won by Dominique Perrault in 2000, the redevelopment of Teresitas is based upon the primordial theme to respect the “natural” image and to offer a different kind of “seaside” resort where no massive constructions are situated on the beachfront. It is in this context that the project of the “Ciudadela” develops. Its program includes: one luxury hotels (230 rooms), a parking garage (200 parking places), retail, restaurants etc. The location of the former military battery is a deserted hill, void of both constructions and vegetation. It is, nonetheless, a site to respect. It is necessary, before anything, to define an architectural presence, more than an architectural act, by developing a new “geography”: Imagine the Ciudadela like a fabric which envelops the actual topography of a new density and offers a new landscape. This new landscape is supple; its surface area is defined by a large veil of metal mesh, vibrant like a living organism, a rhythm of interior and exterior lights. The building, consisting of approx. 52.000 sqm is sited against the hill and oriented towards the valleys. The two principal facades are defined: facade to the beach, behind the “Ciudadela”. The substructure becomes part of the hill itself, black earth, planted, where serpentine pathways lead to the ridge, to the future botanical garden but also to the main plateau of the project: “the plateau of the landscape.” Supporting diverse activities, it allows for the accumulation of “hotel” cubes which recall the scale and the proportions of the old village. Facade to the valleys over-viewing the future sports plain, the new urban zones and the mountain. This facade is more urban and imposing; it acts like a socket joint between different quarters of the city : the old center, the beach, the future development of sports activities, and the new urban developments. The vertical surface, situated above the lower urban area and concealing the voluminous parking, invites exchange among the retail, the leisure activity and the services (main hotel entries, and of  the parking, the gymnasium, the pools, stores, restaurants etc.). This project represents a duality of the environment: nature and architecture. Under the stainless steel metal mesh fabric, a new universe is revealed. It is a universe sensitive to visual pathways and practical routes, to places discreet or animated. It is an active and urban complex which compliments the ancient village and the village of the future.

In 1981 Dominique Perrault established his office in Paris and started his first work: factory Someloir in Châteaudun, France. His first notable project has been the ESIEE (academy for engineers of electronics and electrical engineering) in Marne-la Vallée in 1984. In 1989 we won the international competition for the French National Library in Paris. The building received the “Equerre d’argent” in 1990 and the “Constructa Preis” in 1992 and it had been inaugurated in 1995 by François Mitterand. Most recognized projects include also Velodrom and Olympic Swimming Pool in Berlin (1992-1999), the extension of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg (completion 2009) and the winner project of the competition for the Ewha Women University Campus Centre in Seoul, Korea (2004). Dominique Perrault has won numerous awards like ”New Alpine Architecture” Award 2006, Dedalo Minosse International Prize in 2006, the ”World Architecture Award” in 2002, Mies van der Rohe Award for the French National Library in 1997 and the ‘Programme for New Architecture‘ (PAN XII) in 1983.