This is a 15th century fortress in the city of Las Palmas, which the same authors - Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobehano - turned into the Maritime Museum in the first half of the 2000s. Now they have added an extension to the renovated historic building with a lobby, shop, toilets, storeroom and multi-functional hall.
Considering the significance of the monument, which is basically one of the first structures built by the Spaniards in the Canary Islands, the architects did not continue to update it and its surroundings, but turned to its early history. Back in the 15th century, the interior of the walls surrounding the castle was covered with earth in order to give it - the donjon, which stood on a narrow isthmus - more stability. And now, when, over the centuries, Castillo de la Luz was on land, in the middle of the seaside development, the authors of the project carried out "excavations" and removed all the soil poured 500 years ago. According to them, this is how they revealed the past of the castle.
At the edge of the resulting depression, they erected a pavilion of white concrete sunk into the ground, the underground parts of which are illuminated through narrow glazed openings in the ceilings. Corten steel is widely used - both in the pavilion itself and for the walls that enclose the territory of Castillo de la Luz. Inside the new building, you can see the remains of the ancient walls that fenced the territory of the castle and became a repository for the "mound".
