Volcanic Modernity. The Ten-Bel Ensembles, Canary Islands

Abstract

This article reveals the innovative project mechanisms of the apartment ensembles making up the Ten-Bel tourist complex by architects Javier Diaz-Llanos, Vicente Saavedra and Luis Cabrera, the first intervention aimed at building a landscape of leisure to serve mass tourism on the island ofTenerife in the 1960s. This study shows how the aggregate modular system used in the configuration of the various Ten-Bel ensembles weaves a spatial fabric that sketches out new ways of using space in tourist installations. It demonstrates how the architects sought out ingenious methods for generating forms of spatia l organisation that would permit greater densities, while maintaining a large degree of privacy and intensifying the experiences of the landscape. The study discovers that the uniqueness and re levance of the Ten-Bel apartment ensemb les lie in the fact that they define complex residentia l units that reproduce the open spaces common ly found in urban contexts as part of the architecture itse lf. The ensembles are a means of interspersing architecture and urbanism, a way of constructing an integral space for tourism that unfolds in the territory as a function of the landscape. The research concludes that Ten-Bel's ensemb les forge a singular identity as a synthesis between modern architecture and local culture, constructi ng a modern space for tourism that preserves and promotes the idiosyncrasies of the vernacular architecture and the vo lcanic landscapes of Tenerife Island .