Headquarters of the Fundación Universitaria de Las Palmas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 2024 · Authors: Arquitectura Anca

The main headquarters of the Fundación Universitaria de Las Palmas (FULP) is located in an old building on Juan de Quesada street, whose architectural design was carried out between 1870 and 1874 by Manuel Ponce de León. The building was renovated and rehabilitated through a project drafted in 2021 by the architecture studio Anca (whose managing and co-founding partners are architects Elsa Guerra Jiménez and Noemí Tejera Mujica).

The rehabilitation and recovery were approached based on criteria to enhance the heritage qualities of the existing fabric, conserving the main structure and its historic façade.

Inside, there are open spaces defined by the load-bearing structure of masonry walls and wooden floors, where the set of arcades characterises the lower floors and is replicated in certain interior openings of the building. 

The functional organisation gathers the main activities in the front and central areas, concentrating services in the rear bay, with two lateral access cores. The northern access is preserved, corresponding to the entrance hall clad with ceramics and the curved staircase; while the southern access, developed in the area that was in ruins, offers the most contemporary expression of the whole.

The result, completed in 2024, provides a wonderful relationship and dialogue, full of sensitivity and respect, between the old and the new.

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