The Oriental Hotel in Arrecife is "one of the most relevant exponents" of the architectural heritage of the capital of Lanzarote. Located on the main historic commercial artery of the city, León y Castillo street (also known as calle Real), it was built last century and served as a leisure space for the bourgeois classes of the island. However, only a deteriorating facade remains from that era of splendor.
This property has been one of those that graphic designer José Barrios has chosen to carry out a rehabilitation of its facade with artificial intelligence. The initiative, which began on Instagram a month and a half ago, already has hundreds of followers and requests to imagine a more hopeful future.
"I try to restore, even if only for a few seconds, the memory that each of the buildings holds," says Jose Barrios during an interview with La Voz. Through this reconstruction, he not only momentarily returns the buildings to their previous version but also generates a social debate about each of them.
The building of the old Oriental Hotel is "one of the best exponents of urban bourgeois architecture" in Arrecife and "a building of high historical value," according to the Canary Islands government when ordering its protection. This property had a dining room with a window to the outside and was frequented by wealthy families from Lanzarote, as well as a space where important theater companies, judges, or merchants stayed.
In 2006, during the mayorship of Isabel Déniz (PP) in Arrecife, the city council ordered the eviction of the businesses from the property, citing the "ruinous state" of the building. The merchants then accused the owner of having allowed the upper floor to fall into disrepair. Currently, the lower part of the building is completely boarded up.
In 2021, its interior was on the verge of being demolished after authorization was granted by the Arrecife City Council during the mayorship of Ástrid Pérez (PP), motivated by a court ruling. In fact, it generated a public debate between Pérez and the then president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo (PSOE).
While Arrecife gave the green light to completely modify its interior and assured that it had no "outstanding architectural values", the Cabildo initiated the procedure to protect it. Due to its heritage importance, it finally ended up being protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Asset of Cultural Interest) in the category of Monumento (Monument). Despite this, it has not yet been rehabilitated and is in an advanced state of neglect.
In the recreation made by José Barrios, the Hotel Oriental regains its life, with restored wooden windows and shops on the ground floor of the building. "It is an invitation to look at heritage with different eyes," he defends in one of his publications.
A glimmer of hope for heritage
José Barrios began restoring the facades of historic buildings in Arrecife, alarmed by the state of deterioration of many buildings in the capital of Lanzarote. "I observed several facades that are a bit worn and are not restored as they should be," he explains during an interview.
Using his graphic design knowledge, he tried to give them a new life with the advantages of artificial intelligence. "I wanted people to relive and feel integrated in order to encourage real restoration," says this designer, who does preliminary documentation work so that the rehabilitation of the building is faithful to its original state and also delves into the families who have lived in the buildings to learn their history.
Barrios points out that Arrecife's architectural heritage needs "more attention." "There are many, many more than I have restored, there are too many," he states about the boom in deteriorated properties in the capital.
Among the buildings to which he has given his glimmer of hope are other buildings in the center of the capital, such as one of the Casas Altas of La Plazuela. One of them, a building built in 1891, served as a dwelling, was the Fonda de don Nemesio boarding house, the headquarters of the Property Registry, and even the Civil Guard Barracks during the Spanish Civil War, but it ended up being abandoned. Barrios has also imagined what the Casa del Cabrerón, the old Residencia Alespa, or the building located at number 11 of Avenida Marítima would look like.
"I hope that one day they will take even a small part of what I have done to carry out the final project," says Barrios.
In addition to the historic properties of Arrecife, he also traveled to Caleta de Famara to bring back to life the facade of the Modernist House of Famara, ceded by philanthropist Luis Ramírez to the Canarian Church. For the moment, the rehabilitation of the facade of this unique dwelling on the island has not been carried out and the Cabildo de Lanzarote let the file to declare it a Good of Cultural Interest in the Category of Monument expire.
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