Sacred Museum in Adeje, Spain by Fernando Menis Architects.

The central tower with its rising shaft, soars into the sky, much like the craggy mountains that surround it. Unlike the green, almost moss covered peaks that frame it, more an obelisk than a tower, it stands in stark contrast to its surrounds. Its pale grey concrete finish raw against the horizon. This reinforced concrete sculpture was designed by Tenerife-based Fernando Menis architects and sits on the edge of the Barranco del Infierno, a ravine. On one side there is the Sacred Museum of Adejeand on the other side the rehabilitation and widening of the original Plaza España.

The new plaza based on the site of the original Plaza España has been constructed twice as large and half wider again than the original. Intended to create a permanent stage and space for the community, it is a brave and bold design. The museum is crafted to be a half buried building, the upper space dedicated to a cafeteria, and the underground floors as a space for exhibitions.

The design is a collision of planes, vertical, horizontal and geometrical. It is the quintessential expression of Telluric architecture, forms rising from the paved and sculpted earth in pyramid and ziggurat forms. In this way the museum was designed to evoke and convey a level of spirituality, transforming the space not simply to be a museum but a space that would evoke an emotional response. One worthy of being a dwelling place of the gods.

[Images courtesy of Fernando Menis Architects. Photography © Simona Rota.]