I Premio de Arquitectura Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre

The idea of the Pepe Dámaso Cultural Centre in the suburb
of La Isleta came up under the initiative of the “La Isleta
Participa” (La Isleta participates) research project, making
the most of the boost that the government of the major
Jerónimo Saavedra gave to citizen participation between
2008 and 2010, which contributed to demanding a higher
participation in terms of architecture and urbanism. Finally,
in 2009, within the framework of the national investment
plans (called Planes Zapatero), a monetary entry was
approved for its construction.
The idea: a space for participation in the suburb of La
Isleta.
The Centre is located in a public space for educational
use, in particular, where the old Canary-style fighting
ring was located, and which in the 1970s had been used
as a student assembly. Therefore, one of the project’s
assumptions was creating a place for participation and
the creation of a cultural area in the suburb. Conceptually,
the building, despite having a formal autonomy, adopts
within its programme a dependency on the three buildings
surrounding it: the school, the people’s university and the
local music school.
Project and works: semantics. The language of
architecture
It is located on a walled plot of land, between a residential
building and the Primary School CEIP León y Castillo.
Against the dominance of residential buildings, the
volumetric of the façade has its own personality with a deep
public image. The Pepe Dámaso cultural centre is threestoreys
high above ground level and one underground
storey. The entrance floor, at street level, has the hall, a
three–storey patio that solves the boundary with the
neighbouring building, the bathrooms and a conference
room. The basement includes an exhibition room, patio
and some storage units. The first floor houses a debate or
meeting room (known as Tagoror in Guanche) which is also
used as an exhibition area. Finally, the second floor houses
the square that makes up the roof, and also gives access to
the People’s University Juan Rodríguez Doreste.
The square floors have fluid spaces which are
interconnected and multi–purpose, for temporary use,
reinforcing the idea of a building that depends on what
happens around it. Perhaps the main room on the first floor
best represents the participative nature of the building,
whilst the basement is the area that opens up to creativity.
The light, which mainly comes from the square on the
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