Casa Cabrera Valdivia

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1947 · Authors: Tomás Machado y Méndez Fernández de Lugo

This villa was commissioned in 1941 from the architect Tomás Machado by the doctor Manuel Cabrera Valdivia as a family residence and medical practice. Built on what was then the outskirts of the city, it is one of the best examples of neo-Canarian architecture in Santa Cruz.

It is arranged over two floors, a semi-basement and a lookout tower, so that the ground floor houses the spaces for the owner's professional activity, as well as the service rooms and common areas, all surrounded by an entrance portico, a side terrace and a pergola. The second floor contains the private areas for the family, incorporating a terrace at the front and a balcony on the opposite corner. Finally, above the roofline rises the lookout tower, with its corresponding four-sided roof topped with a weather vane. The enclosing wall of the whole complex is a traditional Canarian estate wall with a coping.

The clear link with the traditional architecture of the archipelago is also seen in the various materials used: rubble masonry on the walls, stonework corners, Arabic tile for the roofs and the excellent pine wood carpentry for doors, windows, balconies and eaves.

The entire building, completed in 1947, has a characteristic appearance that reminds us of the large traditional agricultural houses of the islands.

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