Isabel La Católica Public School

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1932 · Authors: Rodrigo Poggio Lobón

The great boost in the sector of official public works during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship was felt in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the construction of three large school centres in different neighbourhoods of the capital (San Fernando, Isabel la Católica and Salamanca, later named José Antonio).

For the populous El Cabo neighbourhood, the so-called "Isabel La Católica" was planned, to be located on a large plot that bordered to the north with the old rear street of Pescadores (a layout coinciding with the current Avenida de Buenos Aires), and to the south, east and west with still undeveloped land. 

In April 1928 the architect of the Ministry of Public Instruction, Rodrigo Poggio Lobón, drew up the plans adapting them to the irregular shape of the plot. Construction began in 1929, and was completed in April 1932.

The building was designed in an almost L shape, giving a strong longitudinal sense to the bay that runs in the north-south direction. This characteristic is tempered by relieving the solidity of the walls through a loggia on the upper floor and a porch on the ground floor. The result is a work that rejects the harshness of the forms, softening the junctions of the masses and smoothing angles, either by means of compact shapes, such as the quarter-cylinder that faces Avenida Tres de Mayo today, or something lighter like the pergola located at the opposite corner. In short, we are faced with a building that, without unnecessary artifices, naturally adapts to its function.

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