Former Bañares Clinic

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1948 · Authors: Domingo Pisaca Burgada

This building is part of an architectural typology dedicated to the healthcare sector practised in the first half of the 20th century, consisting of using part of the building, generally the ground floor, as a clinic and another as the residence of the owner, usually a doctor who directed the centre.

The Bañares Clinic was designed by the architect Domingo Pisaca for Dr Práxedes Bañares in 1943 at the corner of Pérez de Rozas and Álvarez de Lugo streets, an area at that time with many residences and surgeries of the city's main doctors.

Pisaca designed an expressionist-style building of four floors and a semi-basement intended as storage. The clinic was located on the ground floor, the owner's residence on the main floor, and the rest was allocated to rental housing. The construction took quite some time to complete for various reasons, being finished at the end of 1948.

This work highlights the main corner façade which becomes an expressive resource, the cantilevered bodies, the composition in horizontal-vertical lines of the openings and, especially, the individualised access to the clinic, conceived as a hollowed space in opposition to the vertical emphasis of the entire corner.

Currently, the building has been completely emptied to build new residential housing inside, preserving its original façade.

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