Fernando Menis wins New & Old WAF´s award

The Spanish architect Fernando Menis wins WAF´s award in Singapore with his work for the Plaza de Adeje in Tenerife. The jury highlighted the transformative nature of the project and its significance as a new way to appreciate the city's identity.

Collage de la Plaza de España en Adeje © Menis Arquitectos.

In the project, a great public space is generated in the surface: the main square of this touristic city, and an underground space for the ne Sacred Museum. The plot corresponds to Plaza España square, Grande Street in Adeje, on the edge of Barranco del Infierno ravine and the buildings between the Church and the ravine. There are 2 well differentiated essential elements: on one side there is the Sacred Museum of Adeje and on the other side the rehabilitation and widening of Plaza España square.

The museum is a half buried building with an upper space used as cafeteria, open to the natural landscape that surrounds it. In the underground floors the space will be developed for exhibitions. Plaza España square is expanded widening its surface twice and a half times than the original square, creating a permanent stage and a space underneath destined for municipal offices.

The materials used combine rough and polished concrete and basalt.

World Architecture Festival (WAF).

WAF is the largest global event of architecture, where professionals present the most innovative projects. In this 2012 edition this festival opens to Asia, taking place in the main center of the design as is Singapore.

The WAF movement brings with oneself unprecedented opportunities to for the zone East meet the West, thus offering the inspiration, developing its worldwide network and a plan of new projects. In few words WAF "is alive excellence of the architecture".

CREDITS:

Main architect: Fernando Menis.
Project: Cultural. museum. Status: Plaza de España square surroundings built 2010 y Sacred Museum under construction.
Surface: 5.575 m2.
Structure: Concrete.
Materials: concrete, basaltic stone.
Budget: 3.755.000 €.
Client: Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Adeje.
Site: Adeje, Tenerife. Spain.

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Museo Sagrado. Photography © Simona Rota.

Plaza de España in Adeje. Photography © Simona Rota.

Museo Sagrado y Plaza de España de Adeje. Fotografía © Simona Rota.

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More information

FERNANDO MENIS

Fernando Menis, (1951, Tenerife island, Spain). Throughout his 40-year professional career, Menis has achieved an architectural production that includes works of various scales and typologies, as well as long-term research projects. An expert in designing concert halls and auditoriums, he is internationally recognized and awarded for conceiving an innovative variable acoustics system for the CKK Jordanki Concert Hall (2015, Poland).

Notable completed projects, both independently and collaboratively, include the Church of the Holy Redeemer of Las Chumberas (2022), The Garden of El Tanque Art Centre (2022), CKK "Jordanki" Concert and Conventions Hall in Poland (2015), Plaza Bürchen in Switzerland (2015), Insular Athletics Stadium (2007), Magma Arte & Congresos (2007), Floating pool in the Spree River of Berlin (2004), and the Presidency of the Canary Islands Government in Tenerife (2000). Ongoing projects include the Adaptive Reuse of the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park in Tenerife, Contemporary Art Museum Park Seo-Bo in Jeju, South Korea, Masterplan in Boa Vista of Cape Verde, Pájara Conventions and Concert Hall in Fuerteventura, Rehabilitation of the Cultural Centre in La Guancha, and Rehabilitation of the Teobaldo Power Performative Arts Hall in La Orotava.

Recipient of the Canary Islands Architecture Prize on 10 occasions, Fernando Menis has also been honoured with the Frate Sole International Prize for Sacred Architecture 2024, the European Award AHI for Intervention in the Built Heritage 2023, the Prize to the Best Cultural Building in Poland 2015 from the National Council of Architects of Poland, CEMEX Award for Universal Accessibility 2016, Taipei Design Award for Best Public Building 2016, Stone Award at the VIII International Stone Architecture Award 2005, and the Prize of the V Spanish Biennial of Architecture 1998, among others.

A PhD Architect from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, his works have been exhibited at several editions of the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Aedes Berlin Gallery, and the GA gallery in Tokyo. The Church of the Holy Redeemer project is part of the permanent collection at the MoMA Museum of Modern Art in New York while the CKK Jordanki project is part of the permanent collection at Krakow National Museum of Poland.