Museum of Fine Arts of Gran Canaria
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Architects
Sol89. María González & Juanjo López de la Cruz
Collaborators
Sema D’Acosta, propuesta museográfica; Elena González, Pedro Mena, Salvador Prieto, Xiao Pujol, Juanlu Romero and Adolfo Verano, estudiantes de arquitectura
Client
Cabildo de Gran Canaria
The relationship between the old San Martín Hospital and its surroundings can be measured in meters and years, establishing the distances and the time that connect this building with its immediate context. We could also establish narratives in kilometers and centuries, based on the territorial position of the San Martín complex, which remains linked to the particular topography of Risco de San Juan and the Guiniguada valley. Both urban and territorial factors suggest that the intervention should offer the opportunity to reconcile scales and uses where the city and the territory meet with the MUBA. The project creates a public space for gathering, recognizing the topography of Risco de San Juan by demolishing the elements that over the years have distorted the ensemble; thus, we reveal a powerful platform located at 5.10 meters elevation that receives the path coming from the San Juan hermitage, blending it into one of the stepped urban trails that tame the hillside. The revealed elevation clarifies the heart of the densely built block of the current building and establishes a new place for urban gathering and activity, sheltered by the auditorium, press room, café, restaurant, and workshops of DEAC. This new square completes the sequence of courtyards that punctuate the built mass of the old hospital, whose main role we want to reinforce as places of transit and encounter. After visiting the museum, or even outside of visiting hours, the square will provide the necessary space for exchange and activity that a contemporary museum requires, formalized as a THROUGH SQUARE that hollows out the Museum and creates a north-south urban axis. A slow reading of the slope of Risco de San Juan reveals how lush flora and earth emerge in the different plots and gardens that shape the residential fabric. We might think that our cities should promote uses where the ground breathes, allowing for a reasonable exchange of oxygen and humidity between air and soil. This criterion, followed in cities with a long tradition of thermodynamic use of the ground, underpins the proposed hollowing out of the MUBA block; thus, Risco re-emerges as recognizable through the terracing, breathing through the gardens and the cobblestone pavement of the Plaza.
