Modernist route: 02. The Gabinete literario

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Modernist route · Year: 1919 · Authors: Fernando Navarro, Rafael Massanet y Faus

[...] if we come back to the project by Fernando Navarro and Rafael Masanet to refurbish the Gabinete Literario in 1919, we can see how the party finish to this fragile modernism symbolised the unity between eclectic, modernist and décor styles in this building. The project consisted of refurbishing the old courtyard, which was to give rise to a "hall", as well as a main façade with an added section over the terrace. The restoration programme was not fully completed, but affected the "hall" which characterised the social purpose to the building. The main decorative feature was a huge colourful glass mirror window in the parametres of the lower floor, which as well as providing extra light and depth, reproduced people's movements up and down the stairs, duplicating the effect of seeing and being seen. 

If this refurbishment was indeed centred around the "hall", the meeting area and passageway joining the dance hall to the stairway of "honour" (though not iimperial) and the elevation were also given special attention. History brought in all the compositive elements, as a Rennaissance theme was chosen for the gallery arcade and the "modern" architecture, the transparency of its recesses, windows, lightness of its supports, turrets and crestings, which together with its tilework, all done to produce the same "pleasant and happy" style of the hall and the "local climatic conditions".

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