Modernist houses on calle Triana

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets · Year: 1907-1908 · Authors: Laureano Arroyo, Fernando Navarro

These buildings are reconstructions dating from the first decade of last century and are the product of the latest realignment of calle Triana, in which the two bends at the northern and southern points were straightened out. [...] It is a set of buildings that reflect a certain kind of commercial bourgoisie culture, with great architectural quality in line with contemporary European stylistic principles. They take up the whole plot of land depending on the type of house, standing on rectangular plots -on two or three floors- for shops on the ground floor and residential homes above them. The insides are structured in several centre lines running parallel to the façade with two variants: the first one with the staircase-courtyard on the second centre line and dividing line, and a central corridor running off the first centre line (nºs 76, 78 and 82); the second with the staircase-courtyard serving as a central axis and distribution area (nº 80). On the façade at nº 78 (by Laureano Arroyo, 1908) there is a contrast between the lower floor, with cast iron pillars with gaps at the top on a curved frontis and cement arches. At nº 80 (Laureano Arroyo, 1908) there are molded gaps and traced lines along the edges of balconies, finished off by a gable end, while there are pinnacles placed over the parapet. Nºs 76 and 82 (by Fernando Navarro, 1907) present a symmetrical composition, and are a play on different types of gaps on each floor which are flower shaped following in the best modernist tradition around these times in the city.

This initial modernism set it apart from eclectic-academic architecture, especially in terms of its variety of gaps and edgings which are much more imaginative.

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