Palazón Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1932 · Authors: Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre

This rationalist typology work was designed in 1930 by the architect Miguel Martín Fernández de la Torre as a commercial premises and residences for the owner Rosa Palazón Arbelo. It has its main façade facing Castillo street and the rear facing La Palma street. 

The sober building, with a marked industrial appearance, initially caused some rejection among the most conservative members of both the town hall and Santa Cruz society. It was argued that such an avant-garde design, devoid of any superfluous ornament, was not appropriate to be erected in one of the most important areas of the city. However, after overcoming the objections, the project was approved and the building was definitively completed in October 1932.

On the façade, the openings are symmetrically distributed with a clear horizontal development, framed by vertical ribbed surfaces and wide smooth horizontal bands. A continuous balcony runs only on the first floor. Straight lines and functionality prevail in its appearance. 

This is one of the most characteristic buildings of the stylistic break that occurred in the city at the turn of the twenties to the thirties of the last century. Neither the unfavourable reports from the municipal technical office nor the "old-fashioned" comments of the most conservative classes could withstand the new aesthetic criteria of rationalist architecture that was gradually imposing itself.

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