العربية
Spanish architect Fernando Menes has revealed his design for the futuristic Rodin Museum in Tenerife, Spain, which will be the second home of the Rodin Museum in Europe.
Design Features
To be built in the former Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the new museum will be built with minimal interventions, with the aim of creating an urban oasis and restoring the neo-Gothic building, a listed cultural heritage of the Canary Islands.
While the main center of the Musée Rodin is in Paris, there are only two other venues dedicated exclusively to the French artist: the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, USA, and a wing dedicated to the sculptor at the Shizuoka Prefectural Museum in Japan.
Once completed, the Musée Rodin in Tenerife will become the third in the world dedicated exclusively to the French sculptor.
Design location
Located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park is an iconic landscape and cultural space from the beginning of the 20th century,
where a former neo-Gothic church stands out, later repurposed as Tenerife’s first girls’ school.
Redesigned by Fernando Menes,
the museum will be publicly accessible and will provide 15,000 square meters of green space in the urban heart of the capital city of Tenerife.
As a heterogeneous natural area and cultural space,
the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park was built in 1903 with a design by architect Mariano Estanga and engineer José Rodrigo Vallabriga,
and named after the botanist José Viera y Clavijo.
It was a cultural complex, consisting of the Perez Minic Theater, now in ruins,
and the Colegio de la Asuncion, a former neo-Gothic church founded by Belgian nuns,
later turned into the first girls’ school in Tenerife, which was at the 1978 Opera One on Wl.
The only example of a neo-Gothic religious building in the city, the madrasa has been designated a Culturally Significant Origin of the Canary Islands
(Historic-Artistic Monument) since 1986 and is standing, although severely degraded due to insufficient repairs, alternating with years of neglect.
Redesign of the second headquarters of the Musée Rodin in Spain
The park is home to extensive gardens that contain some botanical gems such as the gigantic ceiba tree (Ceba pentandra),
a Caribbean tree whose crown extends more than 20 meters.
In his shadow, the school’s students took lessons in the mid-20th century, enjoying the temperate climate of the island.
In the gardens are also a bronze sculpture by Joan Miró, Femme Bouteille, or Colosal Insecto,
which were donated to the city of Santa Cruz in the mid-1970s as a result of the I International Street Sculpture .
Located at the intersection of the main urban circles of Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
the park can connect the lower area of the city with one of the access roads to the city.
However, the gradual development of the city, the surrounding ramparts, the rare and narrow sidewalks that surrounded the park,
as well as its proximity to a narrow valley contributed to the fact that it became, little by little, isolated from the rest of the city.
Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park prepared for intensive public use soon
The Musée de Rodin in the future Tenerife will above all be a large,
open and green public space of 15,000 square meters in the heart of Santa Cruz de Tenerife,
overlooking the sea and the valley,
with a prominent role in re-establishing the connection between the lower and upper part of the city.
The Menes remodeling project won the public tender called by the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 2019.
The proposal is based on respecting the pre-existence of both the neo-Gothic architecture and the surrounding nature,
and the brief also requested the design of underground car parks.
Design goals
The aim of the project is to restore the building and treat the vegetation,
preparing them for the extensive public use that will be given to them as an urban park and home to the Rodin Museum.
The intervention relies on the minimum necessary touches complemented by strategic measures, w
hich seek to make the park a green lung, link it to the city and open its views to the sea,
and make it easily accessible, which helps to solve some of the problems of mobility in the capital of Tenerife.
The studio will restore the old school and church, while the existing garden will be expanded into a green ring.
Also a small forest of Ceibas will be planted to accompany the existing specimen and urban orchards
will be included for educational purposes as a reminder of this tradition already in the Colegio de la Asunción.
Design material
Adhering to the principles of Menes “The Zero Kilometer,” the studio will use an economic and sustainability strategy:
the remodeling project will be built using only local materials, crafts, and businesses that are accessible in the local area.
Priority is given to the circular economy through the use of recycled aggregates,
limestone and bacon (local volcanic stone), with a preference for passive solutions for lighting,
ventilation and irrigation. The materials used in the project will be durable and low-maintenance.
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