Landscape Hotel is about the creation of a place-landscape in a small town located in Anaga valley rural park in Taganana (Spain). The main objective of the intervention is to encourage social interaction between visitors and the citizens of that place.
Anaga is the second most visited natural setting in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands. However, this does not impact the town economy as expected. Every single day, busloads of tourists arrive to Taganana. Due to fact that these tourists do not have a place to spend the night, it is really difficult to show them the traditions and rural life of Taganana. The traditional livelihood of the people of Taganana has been agriculture and livestock.
Today, the lack of work for young people has made many of them take the path of their ancestors and cultivate the land with sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions and vines. In addition, there are many tourists who flock to Taganana for rural tourism, to practice hiking, surfing or biking. Therefore, the project is located in the place where all the paths of Taganana converge to provide a place to stay for tourists. Besides the project seeks to continue the growth axis of the town to make it easier the connection to the sea, which is currently with no use and deteriorated.
In such delicate environment it is essential to maintain the aerial image; the hotel should be almost invisible. So it is important to take the idea of land art, as it works on the redefinition of the forms, topography and measures. Moreover, the retaining walls have a fundamental role in the project; first of all they contain the ground and then unfold to form different levels, looking for juxtaposed spaces and numerous situations. As a result there are simultaneous dimensions, where dynamism takes place in the spatiality of the project. The full and empty is mixed, becoming really difficult to distinguish between inner and outer space.
As a significant place within the project, we should highlight the patio in ” u” form which provides a close view to the horizon, towards the sea, framing and giving warmth to the hotel
Getting into the spatiality of the project, the intervention proposes two ways to face the horizon. The first one, the close way, in ” u” form is warm and also it gives shelter to the visitor. And the second one, a completely open way, with no visual barriers. This patio ”u” shaped frames the sea, the vastness, and proposes a complex reading of the pint of escape. Thus, this humble intervention, which has been born with the aim to become one more path in a complex web, talks about how a few small cuts in the territory can improve the daily life of a citizen of a place. Therefore the rural arrangement is regenerated to promote greater efficiency and productivity in orchards. Finally, it provides a nice place for tourists, where they can be in touch with people of Taganana, their traditions and daily life.
STUDENT PROJECT | Landscape Hotel | Guillermo González Gutiérrez
Landscape Hotel in Taganana, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. 2013.
Student | Guillermo González Gutierrez
School | University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
