Sacred Museum Adeje, Fernando Menis Spain, Modern Spanish Building Design Award

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje design by Menis Arquitectos España

5 + 3 Oct 2012

WAF Awards 2012 Category Winner

WAF Awards 2012 category winner – Display + New and Old categories: Plaza Espana in Adeje

photograph ® Simona Rota

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje Award News

The Art Sacred Museum takes advantage of the rugged topography of its location to offer to the city a cover with the condition of a square and a tower that serves as a lookout. The project dates from 2006, although the construction started in 2008 and consists of two distinct elements: for one hand the building of the new Sacred Museum of Adeje and for the other hand the remodeling and expansion of the Plaza of Spain.

This is a semi-buried building consisting of an upper part and various inferior plants, housing the museum’s exhibition space. The Plaza of Spain expands itself in the surface, increasing it in two and a half times compared to the inicial, so it generates a permanent stage and a under space intended to serve municipal offices.

photos ® Simona Rota

The work covers an area of 5.575 square meters and combines various materials like concrete, polished concrete and basalt and was promoted by the City Council of Adeje.

30 Apr 2012

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje – Award

Fernando Menis awarded with European Prize of Urban Public Space 2012

A WORK OF THE CANARIAN ARCHITECT FERNANDO MENIS AS FINALIST IN THE EUROPEAN PRIZE OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 2012

The Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje has been a finalist of the seventh edition of this award that is granted by several European institutions.

The work of the Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje, performed by the canarian architect Fernando Menis, has been a finalist of the seventh edition of the European Prize of Urban Public Space 2012. This is an initiative of the Comtemporary Cultural Center of Barcelona (CCCB) which co-organizes with the Architecture Foundation of London (AF), the Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W), the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine of Paris (la Cité), the Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museum of Helsinki (SRM), the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut of Rotterdam (NAi) and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM).

This European award aims to promote and recognize the recovery processes of the public dimension of the urban spaces in Europe and its ability to encourage democracy and social inclusion in our cities.

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje:

photos ® Simona Rota

European Prize of Public Space

The European Prize of Urban Public Space is an iniciative of the Comtemporary Cultural Center of Barcelona (CCCB) that following their exposure “The Reconquest of Europe” (1999) decided to witness the process of rehabilitation of public spaces that takes place in many European cities.

The Award was born in order to recognize and promote the public nature of urban spaces and their capacity for social cohesion. The Award, which provides the ambiguities inherent in the conception of public spaces it the only in Europe that recognizes and promotes both public space (open and of universal access) and urban areas. Thus, this Award distinguished from other initiatives focused on the figure of the architect and awards devoted to landscape, to emphasize the relational and civic character of the typically urban space. Over time, several European institutions have joined the project.

The Award has many singularities. The first is that is given both to the architect and to the public administration (City Council or Political Representant) who has taken the political decision to perform the procedure and often guarantee funding. The honorary prize is the second feature. The third is that this Award does not point, or at least not uniquely or priority, to the large urban developments, but to the urban surgery interventions – large or small – which area mainly intended to improve the citizens living conditions.

The priority is assigned as the architecture with a social vocation rather than interventions with aesthetic or spectacular accent. The fourth uniqueness of the prize is its distinctly European vocation. Indeed, while preserving local characteristics, the Award seeks to exalt the common features of the urban planning over the geography of Europe, trying to promote and disseminate a certain European identity in the architecture field.

A selection of projects submitted to the Award are kept at the European Archive of Urban Public Space and supplemented by the Urban Library, which publishes the texts of the conferences with the most significant urban issues that have been delivered at the CCCB. The Award falls within the framework of multidisciplinary and permanent reflection of CCCB about the city and public space.

Sacred Museum and the Plaza of Spain in Adeje images / information from Fernando Menis, Menis Arquitectos

Menis Arquitectos SLP

Location: Adeje, Spain, southwestern Europe