Of the 11 projects preselected by the jury of the ideas competition for the Puerto - Ciudad de Arrecife project, 10 are finally being evaluated because the Iraqi Zaha Hadid, the curriculum with the highest score in the initial phase, withdrew from the call, as confirmed to La Voz by the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Fajardo Feo, who is part of the evaluation committee.
The jury, which met yesterday for the second time in the Port Authority building of Los Mármoles to analyze the projects and their models, did not venture to set a date for the delivery of the final result, however, the mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, had told this newspaper that the finalist works will be exhibited, even with models, in the Sociedad Democracia. For the moment, the jury, as in any competition of this category, evaluates the projects without knowing the authorship of each one. They are signed by a motto.
A truly impressive curriculum
It is a pity the withdrawal of Hadid because her curriculum is truly impressive. At 54 years of age, she won the Pritzker Architecture Prize last year, considered the most important for an architect, while in 2003 she was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, but her record includes more than fifteen awards for her work. She appeared as a finalist to design the Olympic Village in New York with a view to the 2012 Olympic Games, which will eventually be organized by the city of London.
Some of the projects she has developed are: the maritime terminal of Salerno (Italy), the high-speed train station in Naples, interior reconstruction of the Hotel Puerta América in Madrid, the Department de l'Herault building, Montpellier (France), the BMW building, Leipzig (Germany), and the Guggenheim Museum, Tokyo, (Japan).
Other groups whose works are being evaluated are: César Suárez Falcón, Guillermo Vásquez Consuegra, UTE Laboratorio de Planeamiento y Arquitectura S.L, Un Estudio Van Berkel & Bos BV, Gadap Bordes, S.L , Fernando Martín Menis and Jerónimo Junquera y Asociados S.L. Of these, two are from the Canary Islands, Gadap Bordes S.L and Fernando Martín Menis, the latter being the brother of the President of the Canary Islands, Adán Martín.
Mission of the action
The Puerto - Ciudad project aims to regenerate an area that, with the passage of time and the evolution of all maritime development, has been losing its usefulness and use. In other words, areas that are currently unproductive could be rescued for the society of Lanzarote. One of the criteria that the administrations committed to the ambitious project have highlighted is the consensus to carry out the actions, understanding that it is the only way to revitalize an area for citizen use.
In this regard, the Port Authority warned that it is working on the development of the PEPA with the City Council and in full coordination with the General Urban Development Plan "which has to be the figure that coordinates and directs the interior action of the port because we are convinced that it is the city that has to be clear and accept any proposal for the regeneration of a port area", commented José Manuel Arnáiz.
Concrete goals
The competition was opened because it aims to generate a space for the meeting between the city and the port, to qualify the urban quality of Arrecife through the reconfiguration and improvement of its maritime - port facade, to house necessary parking spaces and to improve the road connection between the port and the city.
The four institutions committed to the Puerto - Ciudad project (Government of the Canary Islands, Island Council, City Council of Arrecife and Port Authority) signed a protocol on November 22 agreeing to the creation of a joint cooperation and permanent contact commission to promote the action and analyze the immediate problems posed by the relationship of port facilities with the capital.
The most suitable proposals will serve as a reference as a guideline for the subsequent planning and development of a part of the port area located on the maritime edge of the city of Arrecife, achieving the transformation to urban use of the port sector, between the Castillo de San José and the old commercial dock.
An investment of 57 million euros
The Port Authority reported that for the next four years the public investment will be 57 million euros, but it is intended to extend it to 100 million euros, apart from private funding, which in any case will depend on the winning projects in the ideas competition and the Special Plan of the Port of Arrecife (PEPA). The cruise ship dock in Puerto Naos is the main infrastructure of the Puerto - Ciudad project
The opening of the port to the city implies the development of the port space with actions that introduce a greater diversification of tourist activities (cruise traffic), cultural, recreational and leisure activities.
In this sense, the works presented to the competition propose solutions for the integration of the city and the port, resolving the interaction of the activities and conditions of the latter with the opening of the city to the sea, through the succession and provision of adequate leisure, commercial and service facilities, which, linked by accesses, pedestrian and road connections, and free space systems, configure, as a whole, the guidelines for the planning and development of the future maritime front and the creation of a nautical marina.
