I Premio de Arquitectura Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre

The playground of the Preschool “Escuela Infantil La
Herradura”, in Telde, has incorporated a small organic
landscape which contrasts and overlaps with the stiffness of
the original building. The bright colour and soft shadows fill
the new playground with movement, becoming a complete
landscape. The same as with pillars of the room Villa
Mairea, the supports disappear and the glossy treatment of
the underside of the new cover traps the bright light helping
to fragment an impressionist reality created by splashes of
colour. The playground thus becomes the stage of a show,
an unlimited stage appropriate for the magic of children
games. While the trees peep over from outside, the new
roofing has been permissive with them and with the clouds,
yet everything else has been eliminated from the picture.
Trillo de Layva, 2010.
At the end of the school year, we were contacted regarding
the perimeter shelter of the school’s playground. We were
able to confirm the cracks and fissures caused by the
separation of the concrete and steel. On our visit, we had
the pleasure of meeting the local technicians and the
board of directors of the school. It was one of those very
hot and bright summer days and we took the opportunity
to discuss with the parties involved, a restoration project
beyond the passivation of the reinforcement bars and
their covering with special resins and mortars. Further to
the problems with the narrow overhang, there were also
problems with the single central drain. There is an obvious
need for shade in the Canary Islands, thus, the proposal
was warmly welcomed. With our heads heating up under
the relentless sun, each party stated their conditions: the
school directors said that the work had to be completed by
the end of the summer holidays, the developer limited the
budget. We accepted the challenge. We projected shade
to the playground in an area of 18 x 18 m and a new floor.
The shape gives way to an enveloping exterior marking
the most direct paths to the classrooms and entrances.
The result is a puzzle piece, built into the building itself
with maximum respect, barely touching it. From inside,
the roof appears weightless despite the 60 m 3 of concrete
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