Naos Urban Park

Naos Park is located on an existing pier, by the waterfront, in the city of Arrecife. The site is situated in a strategic location between the boulevard that bypasses the city, and its stunning waterfront. Thanks to its enviable position at this crossroads, it has the potential of being a park for tourists to gather when they arrive, and a transport hub with multimodal forms of transport, such as public buses, taxis, tourist shuttles and bicycles. The design strategy involves extending the green tree canopy of the boulevard into Naos Park, by installing five artificial trees in the existing concrete pier.
Each tree will have a range of facilities under them, including public bathrooms, cafeterias, A bike rental service, an information office and a ticket office for buses. In addition, each tree will consist of a vertical garden and a top garden pot, as well as a vortex windmill that will provide energy for watering, off-grid lighting and Wi-Fi system. Steps for the public to gather on, with panoramic views over the surroundings, and protected from the dominant north-east winds (the so-called Alisios), will make up the full structure of each tree. The resulting public space will provide a big open shaded area, in the middle of the hot city of Arrecife. The trees are built of salted laminated timber, and they will undergo an industrialised construction process. The second part of the project consists in preparing the existing platform for public use, including the provision of a terrace with views over the marina. Future phases will include the re-designing of the existing roundabout, by enlarging it, so that it becomes an extension of the park.

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.

Main Building at UD Las Palmas Training Complex

The Main Building is part of the UD Las Palmas Training Complex, developed in a former quarry at the outskirts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). It allocates the leading team ́s working facilities including parking, gymnasium, dressing area, medical center, hydrotherapy, and press area. Outside, the building incorporates a seating area made out of on-site natural materials.

The building is placed between two platforms. As a result, two out of the three floors are underground. Longitudinally, the resulting volume works as a green corridor, connecting the unspoiled landscape area with an existing ravine, restoring some of the ecological and landscape features of the former quarry. Local gardening and stones are the materials of the west façade and seating area, integrating it with the aesthetics of dry quarry walls and green slopes.

The design of east façade and the seating area incorporates bioengineering technologies such as green retaining walls and stone gabions made out of on-site soil and stones. West façade includes a timber brise-solei that reduce the impact of the subtropics intense sunlight and protect the building from heat gain. The top floor works as a terrace area with views over the two football pitches. The result is a landscape-integrated building that goes beyond landscape aesthetics, becoming a green corridor that helps to restore some of the ecological features of a former quarry.

Playa Honda Urban Park

The urban park of Playa Honda is located in the municipality of San Bartolomé, which is characterized by its strategic position within the island of Lanzarote.
This is because the island airport is located in this municipality. Another aspect of strategic importance is that San Bartolomé is very close to the capital, Arrecife, and Puerto del Carmen. The strategic objectives of the proposal are: to convert the Playa Honda urban park into a free public space of insular reach, bordering Lanzarote Airport and the Arrecife-Yaiza LZ-2 Road; Create a new iconic landscape on the island of Lanzarote, characterized by its cultural and landscape richness linked to the work of César Manrique; And introduce the urban park within the network of tourist points of scenic and architectural interest of the island.

Nueva Noruega Eco-Resort

This housing complex of sixteen touristic villas is organized by a combination of two types of “living-bars”: one housing unit contains a kitchen, a living room and a balcony and the other one accommodates two extra bedrooms and bathroom. Each apartment is the result of the aggregation of two o more bars placed at different levels that are completed by an “eco-box”, that articulates the vertical connexions between the bars, making possible a permanent natural ventilation and illumination of the whole unit, even when the owner is on the leave. The open space around  the housing complex, accommodates two types of landscapes and a natural (chemical-free) swimming pool.

Monte León Medical & Wellness Eco-Resort

The site is placed at 560 meters altitude with views over the ocean and the surrounding rugged landscape. The project consists in a tourist eco resort, which includes three functional pockets: a bunch of 80 villas, a 65-rooms hotel and a medical complex. The design strategy consists in a series of platforms that follows the topographical conditions of the site, allowing an easy and accessible walking experience between the functional pockets and its dependencies. The project includes very ambitious eco-design´s principles, which aims to compensate the carbon emissions of the visitors, allowing their return to home with close to neutral carbon footprint.

Maspalomas Beach Access

Maspalomas Beach is one of the most renowned beaches in Europe and one 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” removable solution. Besides the wooden beams and floors, the materials used include natural filtering systems for showers, integrated mini-solar panels, saltwater plants, and light foundations; all compatible with the beach environment. 

Playa del Inglés Street Design Guidelines

Playa Del Ingles is one of the main touristic areas in the Canary Islands. With more than forty years of history, the current urban layout demands an urgent renovation and the implementation of sustainable and environmental strategies. The structure of the mobility system and the design of the public spaces and infrastructures are the main components of the project´s brief. The solution proposes two main circulation circuits—one devoted to functional traffic and other more oriented to tourist mobility. A bunch of linear boulevards running from the interior to the beaches, complete the new structure of the mobility system and catalogues the different types of streets. The second part of the project includes the design of a selected group of streets which character and section is defined according with its relative position in the new urban structure.

San Isidro Bus Station

The necessity of a bus station was one of the conclusions of a Sustainable Mobility Plan developed by the municipality of San Miguel on the island of Tenerife; however, the site chosen for the bus station offered a very good location in terms of accessibility but lacked urban quality. The project consists of the design of an exchange station that integrates multiple urban “uses” and “users”. The design strategy consists of developing a public square that incorporates, alongside the bus platforms, other programs such as kiosks, grandstands, playgrounds and landscaping. The main purpose of this is to allow children, elderly people and urban pedestrians to share this space with commuters. The design also includes the use of a textile canopy—inspired by the kite surfing sails that proliferate in beaches nearby—that stretches across the space, providing comfort, visibility and urban identity for the whole area.