The Plaza Pedro Alcántara was not yet a square. This space was born as Plaza del Millo under the protection of the activity of the Harinera Lanzaroteña (Flour Mill Factory), a company that was implanted in 1955 in the western edge of the capital of Lanzarote. The plaza was practically a maneuvering yard for the access of trucks to this factory. In the 1960s, trucks had continuous access, and today this traffic has not changed, although the frequency of access has been significantly reduced.
Starting on a residual and deteriorated space, the City Council proposed as the motto of an architectural competition: The creation of a versatile and quality urban space that favors the integration and adaptation to the environment within the urban fabric, oriented to generate meeting and relationship points for people.
That is why we propose a strategy based on two clear objectives:
(O1) Create a support: A sufficiently versatile scenario that allows its adaptation to diverse and mutable patterns of use. Keeping the assumptions of the intervention conditioned by the operation of the factory.
(O2) Naturalize (art-nature): Understanding the creation of the urban landscape as a process linked to the interpretation of the extraordinary landscape of the island, always subordinated to it. Lanzarote provides him with a basic iconography of elements that synthesize the physical, immaterial and cultural values of its landscape -such as volcanology, agriculture or vernacular architecture-, which he reinterprets and incorporates into his spatial work in order to establish links with the environment. [The proposal for the territorial construction of Lanzarote (1960-74). The art of César Manrique between landscape and tourism].
This difficult task will focus on four lines of intervention:
(1) The organic organization of space, in which each of the parts is referenced to a whole. This whole is represented by a multi-scale hexagonal pattern that allows the integration of the different compositional elements (pavement, furniture, vegetation…) This pattern is perceptible in the diaclases of the basaltic columns and in the regularization of the distribution of crops in La Geria in its conversion into tessellations.
(2) Mimetization, understood as the introduction of inert and living materials from the environment, “earth” and “green”. It will operate mainly in the incorporation of the extraordinary plant material present in the island. In this way ‘green’ becomes a solution when it assumes the main functions of adaptation, becoming a space of nature, a necessary infrastructure for the efficient maintenance of urban order. The ‘earth’ is transformed into pavement, offering the combination of three tones, the basaltic gray, the sand of the jable (sandy soil) and the reddish-brown of the massifs and Mountains of Fire.
(3) Vernacular architecture, reflecting the construction of the landscape through the walls and water storage and collection strategies. In this case the walls will be white, whitewashed… modeled on the earth; these elements will form the constructions emerged on the ground surface. This surface will lead the water towards the vegetation zones, understood as fractures or cracks, where the runoff will be retained and filtered, which will lead to the cistern for storage and reuse. The square therefore acts as a draining micro-basin, leading the runoff to the landscaped areas, which retain and filter it through the action of the vegetation and the gravel filtering layer. Once filtered, the runoff is conveyed to a cistern, integrating into the design a characteristic element of the island’s vernacular architecture and a storage system for the scarce local rainfall, capable of covering 60% of the annual irrigation demand.
(4) Vegetation: This is the fundamental project element, in the elaboration of the species catalog, native species of Lanzarote have been considered, due to their adaptation and, consequently, greater resistance; many of them are endemic and/or catalogued species. In this sense, the intervention could be linked to the initiatives linked to the Biosphere Reserve (creation of green infrastructure, awareness campaigns, workshops and itineraries on urban biodiversity, Biosphere schools …), in addition to incorporating the principles of the work carried out by the Experimental Farm of the Cabildo de Lanzarote in the 80s for the incorporation of native flora to urban greenery. The plant has been supplied by Adislan (Organization of services for people with disabilities in Volcán de Tahiche) and Beheque (Environmental association).
Insularity was the challenge. We had to dispose mainly of what was there. Most of the street furniture had to be designed and the plant availability was only that of the island. Like water, resources are limited, and time cannot be bought. There was no point in bringing in specimens or large pieces of design. ‘On this island we don’t waste anything’.
[The climate of Lanzarote is warm desert]
Name of the project: Refurbishment of Plaza Pedro Alcántara [La Harinera]
Project category you wish to submit to: Public Space
Architecture offices involved in the design:
Germán Camino Martínez
Mercedes Pérez Villalón
Celia Martínez Hidalgo
Location: Plaza Pedro Alcántara | Arrecife (Lanzarote, Canary Islands), Spain | Promoter: City Council of Arrecife.
Design year: 2020
Year Completed: 2022
