AFELSA Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1972 · Authors: Juan Julio Fernández Rodríguez, José Antonio Vías Torres

In 1967 the architects Juan Julio Fernández Rodríguez and José Antonio Vías Torres developed the project for this building intended for warehouses, commercial premises and offices for the company AFELSA. The L-shaped plot was located on Tres de Mayo Avenue, an area which in the 1960s was mostly occupied by industrial warehouses, which seemed logical as this road, then suburban, was very close to the industrial complex of the Refinery.

The architects of this building managed to convince the developer to construct a property that adapted differently to its various uses, clearly distinguishing the storage areas, the exhibition premises and the offices. To this end, a work with two well-differentiated volumes was proposed. The lower one, with three floors, the first two glazed (now completely transformed), was intended for storage and exhibition; the third for offices, protected by aluminium blinds. From this first body rises another vertical one, intended for rental to third parties. The tower is configured by means of a prism clad in ceramic gres and very closed on two of its faces; concrete slats protect the windows facing west; large windows open on the opposite side, which faces the sea.

It should be noted that the building successfully solved the different uses for which it was designed. Completed in 1972, its figure always fitted naturally into the environment; first to the industrial warehouses and currently to an emerging commercial and residential area.

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