Tourist carrying capacity at the Canary Islands

The Canary Island host around 16 million of tourist per year. This phenomenon happens in a fragmented territory of eight islands, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. With an average stay of 9 days, the Canary Islands manage more than one hundred fifty millions of tourist nights. In this scenario, the concept of Tourist Carrying Capacity has become an issue at the Canaries.

The problem is that this concept is highly problematic in itself. It reduces the issue to a spatial and determinist factor, regardless of its ecological behaviour. As an alternative, the report proposes a definition based on a living system approach. Tourist Carrying Capacity becomes then an envelope of concepts such as urban metabolism, ecological footprint, carbon neutral and circular economy. This new approach may describe better the more or less sustainable behaviour of the tourism-territory equation.

Digital Totem®

The design upgrades the traditional advertising poles proliferating in malls and gas stations that are mainly used for advertising and business visibility.

The design strategy seeks to enhance its functionality by improving its visual access. The design system consists of rotating eight blocks of a prism in accordance with the movement of vehicles around the roundabouts where they are placed.

Each module includes a video screen similar to those in football stadiums and the video panels give information regarding access to car parks, availability of parking spaces and commercial ads.

Arrecife Waterfront & Marina

Arrecife is the capital of Lanzarote (Canary Islands). It has a unique geographical location formed by a group of rocky reefs, puddles and islets that constitute and make its coastal front singular. The most interesting part of its history is the efort to communicate the islets and urbanize the “puddles”. The bridge “Puente de Las Bolas”, built in the late sixteenth century, and the pool of San Gines are some of the best examples to do this.

Our intervention strategy consolidates this pattern of growth along the waterfront and the port. The project consists of the extension of two pedestrian pathways along the coastal front, creating new pools and communicating the existing islets.

The resulting loop generates urban spaces where new uses are placed. The crossings of the loop generate nodes that host kiosks, meeting places and water-taxi stations.

Maspalomas Beach Access

Maspalomas Beach is one of the most renowned beaches in Europe and one of the main tourist attractions on the island of Gran Canaria. The aim of the project is to provide services for the beach users, including staircases, showers, benches and lockers. The design integrates the functional program in a wooden topography that replicates the shape of the surrounding dunes, permitting unexpected uses. Thanks to digital fabrication techniques, the resulting “dune” does not compromise the viability of its construction and provides a complete removable solution. Besides the wooden beans and loors, the materials used include natural iltering systems for showers, integrated mini-solar panels, saltwater plants, and light foundations; all compatible with the beach environment.

Gran Tarajal Fair Complex

The current Gran Tarajal Fair is on the beachfront, between a promenade and the socalled Barranco de Gran Tarajal (the largest ravine on the Island). The project aims to refurbish the functional, material and accessibility conditions of the current space. The strategy includes opening the perimetral wall to make it more permeable to transit and redesigning the stage area and the kiosks to accommodate toilets and a cafeteria.

The design maintains the existing cubic volumes that house the stage and the kiosks. The intervention adds to each one a stand in the lower part, compacted earth walls in the intermediate, and a green roof with a wooden pergola that provides shade and support for the plants. This pattern is used for the auditorium and the kiosks. It aims to create an abstract urban landscape dominated by stands and landscaped pergolas that gives all buildings a similar and neutral character, regardless of size and functional program. This new space should invite spontaneous and daily use by neighbours and visitors, complementing the more formal cultural events throughout the year.

The new fair complex and its surroundings include a drainage solution based on natural infiltration systems that avoids compromising the public space from flooding with heavy rains. The project consists of natural materials such as pine laminated wood treated for exteriors, compacted earth walls and roof gardens. The resulting platform is fully accessible and is built with raw materials such as stabilised dirt and local stone.

Digital Totem for the Canary Islands beaches

The digital totems are smart weather stations that collect and display environmental and local information for tourists and visitors of beaches and waterfronts in the Canary Islands (Spain). They are part of an ICT infrastructural network that celebrates the rooted relationship between the Canary Islands culture and their extraordinary climate.

The design is inspired by the aboriginal ceramic art pieces from the indigenous inhabitants of the islands. This art was based on the worship of the sun god “Magheq”, usually represented through circular shapes and decorative geometric patterns.

The design consists of a digitally fabricated solid wood ring standing vertically with a north-south orientation. The southern face hosts an array of photovoltaic modules that turn sunlight into electricity for phone and e-bike charging. The northern face contains a 1,2 m2 video screen that broadcasts real-time environmental data captured by the totem and useful information regarding tourist activities and services in the area. In addition to its technological and digital features, the totem also provides analogy and material values to attract attention and enrich the pedestrian
urban experience.

The resulting solution celebrates more than five hundred years of the creative relationship of the Canary Islands with the sun. From the marking of the solstices for agricultural purposes and the sun and beach tourism to the more recent challenges of producing sustainable energy with solar panels.

Street Bio-corner

These brand-new street bio-corners will evolve from some of the existing street corners in Arrecife, standing out amid the arid landscape, and consisting of a big tree, a shaded area and seating. Street bio-corners are a contemporary version of the existing ones, adding new bio-functionalities, such as a local drainage system, clean energy, digital information, and biodiversity. Besides trees, gardens and places for people to meet up and relax, these spaces will include a sustainable drainage system for the harvesting, filtering and storage of rainwater, as in old times in Lanzarote, when water was a valued and scarce resource. Each street bio-corner works as a hydraulic infrastructure, in addition to being a public space, with a Wi-Fi connection and an off-grid energy system.
Our aim is that these corners will encourage people of different ages to come together, as well as making the city eco-friendly. The design consists of an assemblage of triangular modules and has multiple and varying usages, such as being a garden, a playground, a place to play chess with tables, an orchard, a butterfly garden, a location for barbeques, a platform for yoga, as well as having steps to sit on. There is a plan to develop about forty street bio-corners around the city, all of them in collaboration with people living in nearby neighbourhoods.

Taxi Rank Prototype for the Island of Lanzarote

The island of Lanzarote is located off the west coast of Africa. Its whole area is a biosphere reserve and its arid climate and spectacular, volcanic landscape have ensured it has a thriving tourist industry.
Our design is inspired by the sheer vastness and rustic tones of the volcanoes, along with the beauty of its subtropical flora, which manages to flourish under the harsh wind and sun. The proposed design consists of a massive garden-pot supported by timber columns, placed over a second component, comprising a ground platform with benches, wind protection and communication panels.
The modular design of the shelter allows it to be enlarged, adapt to steep streets and respond to the requirements of each municipality. It is our hope that this atmospheric setting will thereby not only make it a place for people to wait for a taxi, but also somewhere to meet up and relax.
Plants from the local flora will be used and these will vary in accordance with location and altitude, making each taxi rank unique. The steel pots will be made of corten steel, while the timber columns will be salt impregnated, allowing the dominant north-east wind, the rays of the sun and the salty environment to add the finishes touches to it over time, thereby enhancing the rustic appearance of the island.