The new building was built on the border of the historic city center, on the edge of a deep ravine. Its architectural solution was determined by the complex shape of the site: two wings of the building surround a triangular square-courtyard. The dark gray concrete facades are enlivened by small, chaotically scattered glazed openings. A ramp road leads inside, continuing the line that passed earlier along the section of the street. The courtyard is overlooked by the glass walls of the reading room located in the building of the central library of the Canary Islands and the main lobby. The complex also includes the Oscar Dominguez Institute Museum of Contemporary Art and a photography center. The exhibition halls of the permanent exhibition (which are mainly the work of Dominguez, a Spanish surrealist painter born in Tenerife) are located on the second floor of the building, the first is occupied by galleries of temporary and photographic exhibitions. They are connected by a spiral staircase located in the foyer. The perception of the interior is determined by the planes of walls and floors intersecting at curved angles, creating unexpected spaces, emphasized by the active use of natural and artificial lighting effects.
The architects tried to make their building "not only a meeting place for the inhabitants of the island, but also a point of intersection of the landscape of the modern city, the old city … and the ancient relief of the area." Local authorities relate to the construction, the construction of which took a lot of effort and money (design and construction lasted 12 years, and in order to free the building site, it took 42 private residential buildings to be demolished) more practical: they see it as an opportunity to change the image of the Canary Islands in in the minds of Europeans: from a place of inexpensive beach holidays, they can turn into an important cultural center that attracts tourists of the highest level.
The TEA Center is not the first Herzog & de Meuron project to be completed in the capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz: the Plaza de España, which they reconstructed, opened this year, and in the coming years, the architects will also update the port area.
Also in early November, in the hometown of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Basel, a high-rise building was opened according to their design: the 71-storey tower "St. Jakob Turm", a prismatic volume resembling a quartz crystal. In its lower part there are offices, the upper floors are occupied by elite housing.
