Maspalomas Costa Canaria - STUDIO BASEL · Professors Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron ... Maspalomas Costa Canaria is located on the Southern tip of Gran Canaria, representing

Maspalomas Costa CanariaPlaya del Ingles

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Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichFaculty of ArchitectureETH Studio Basel - Contemporary City Institute

020_Canary IslandsWintersemester 2005/06

Professors Jacques Herzog and Pierre de MeuronAssisting Teachers Simon Hartmann, Christian Mueller Inderbitzin,John Palmesino, Ann-Sofi Rönnskog

Students Christian Dehli and Michael Umbricht






9 Preface

A Tourist Destination

12 Figures

16 Zones

24 Phenomena Faced Today

Before Mass Tourism

28 The Beauty of Nature

30 Early Settlements and Agriculture

32 El Conde

34 Early Tourism

A Filled Vessel

40 Growth of Playa del Ingles

42 Borders

50 Density of Inhabitants

51 Density of Tourist Accommodations

52 Building Typologies

55 Building Heights

56 Public Spaces

Transformations

72 From Tourism to Residential

74 Los Molinos

76 Time Sharing

78 Price Decline

80 Fragmentation of Ownership

82 City Typologies

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Preface

Maspalomas Costa Canaria is located on the Southern tip of Gran Canaria, representing one of the largest tour-ist destinations on the Canary Islands. With 100’690 beds, Maspalomas houses 71 % of the tourist accom-modations on Gran Canaria and 28.9 % of the Canary Islands.

The tourism in Maspalomas can be characterized as a tourism concentrating on the beach, with sunbathing and swimming as its main activities. In the evenings the bars and restaurants are the main attractions. Golfing is also of importance for the area, other recreational activities play a minor role. Cultural activities are of no importance to the tourism in the area of Maspalomas.

The main built substance dates back to the seventies and eighties and for the area of Playa del Ingles and San Agustin, the eastern part of Maspalomas Costa Canaria, has not been renewed or altered since then.As a consequence, the demand of today’s tendencies in tourism, namely all inclusive concepts and large hotel resort typologies, can not be met, attracting more and more tourists who are not willing to spend much money and are looking for cheap entertainment.On the other hand, large and luxurious hotel resorts as well as a golf course are being built in Las Meloneras in the eastern part of Maspalomas Costa Canaria, produc-ing tension between east and west, clearly addressing a more modern and financially higher level of tourism.

This asymmetrical development of Maspalomas Costa Canaria drastically changes the future role of the Area of Playa del Ingles, the formerly most important and dens-est zone, to a point, where it will start to compete with its own “support” area, San Fernando in the North, which is more and more growing into a complete city in itself.

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Figures

Tourist Accommodations

Europe 6’600’000 Beds

America 6’100’000 Beds

Asia-Pacific 3’900’000 Beds

Africa 500’000 Beds

Canary Islands 394’680 Beds

Gran Canaria 141’488 Beds

Maspalomas 100’690 Beds

Population

Canary Islands 1’915’540 Inhabitants

Gran Canaria 790’360 Inhabitants

Maspalomas 37’790 Inhabitants


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Maspalomas Costa Canaria



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Zones


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Sonnenland

San Agustin

Playa del Ingles

Oasis

Meloneras

Campo International

San Fernando

Campo de GolfPasito Blanco

El Hornillo

El Tablero

El Veril



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Playa del Ingles

Playa del Ingles is the densest area of Maspalomas Cos-ta Canaria and the main tourist center. It houses 58’400 beds in tourist accommodations, 58 % of the offer of the entire area. 45.7 % of these beds are located in apart-ments, 16.6 % in bungalows and 37.7 % in hotels and aparthotels.The main attractions of the area are the dunes and the beach, which represents the largest public space were most of the people spend their daytimes.


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San Agustin

San Agustin, a rather calm area in the east of Maspal-omas Costa Canaria was one of the first tourist settle-ments in the area. It houses 10’069 beds in tourist acco-modations,10 % of the overall offer in Maspalomas.San Agustin is a popular holiday destination for mostly elderly Scandinavian people.




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San Fernando

San Fernando is a residential area located north of Playa del Ingles and can be seen as a “support” city. Public facilities such as schools, sport clubs and public parks can be found in this area. Most of the people living in San Fernando work for the tourist industry. San Fernando is cut of from Playa del Ingles by one of the main streets, clearly separating the local people in the North from the tourists in the South.




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Phenomena Faced Today

Residential vs. TourismMost of the built structure in Playa del In-gles has not been renovated or renewed since it was built in the seventies and eight-ies and is not suitable for the demands of today’s tourism any longer. More and more, apartment buildings originally built as tour-ist accommodations are today used as res-idential buildings. In 2001 there were 5117 people living in Playa del Ingles, an area planned exclusively for tourism. With the aging of the buildings this tendency seems to grow.

Holiday Destination For Retired PeopleDue to the mild and constant weather dur-ing the wintertime, the cheap prices of the hotel rooms and the relatively close dis-tance (by airplane) to Europe, Maspalomas seems to be a very suitable place for el-derly German and British people to spend the cold season.


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DecayIn most of the commercial centers, the basements and lower storeys become more and more places of decay, while the shops on the ground floors are still working as if nothing would be changing. In none of the commercial centers in Playa del Ingles or San Agustin an attempt to change the desperate atmosphere can be seen. At the same time, new commercial centers open in Las Meloneras. Is Playa del Ingles dy-ing?

As Cheap as PossibleWithin the outdated structures of the build-ings in Playa del Ingles, a culture of the cheap is gaining ground. On one hand, this development is fed by retired people, who do not have much money to spend during wintertime, and on the other hand by young people who are looking for a cheap thrill during the summer. Both these very differ-ent groups share the same spaces, taking turn in a half-year rhythm populating the same commercial centers and beaches.



Before Mass Tourism

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Before Mass Tourism

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Beauty of Nature

The apotheosis of the region, stretching away in an ap-parently limitless golden plain, providing a contrast with the emerald ocean. Its resplendent dunes, dense woods of slim palm trees, tidal seawater lagoon, and the elegant lighthouse are set against a background of mountains. The view is unutterably exotic.(Alfonso Canella Muniz. La emoción de la isla: El “Sur”, 1940)

Dromedar in the dunes 1965


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Dunes with lighthouse “Faro”

The dunes 1965


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Before Mass Tourism

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Early Settlements and Agriculture

Tomato fields next to the beach 1935

First church in San Fernando


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Tomato fields

First Farmers


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Before Mass Tourism

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El Conde

“Over the last few years more and more tourists have visited us, as well as inhabitants from other parts of the island who come to enjoy the splendors of the beaches in the south.”

“The beaches have become more and more important, with Maspalomas, which is part of my estate in this area, becoming particularly popular ... Its natural condition mark it out as ideal for recreation and relaxation for both island people and tourists.”

Sr. Don Alejandro del Castillo y del Castillo, Nov. 1960

El Conde


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Maspalomas Costa Canaria

Competition announced in August 1960Jury January 1962

2000 hectares along 17 kilometers along coastline should be developed into tourist area

141 projects registered from 24 countries81 Projects went into the competition

The first prize was awarded to the French team S.E.T.A.P

The winning project was drastically altered, if not ignored, during its execution

Competition plan 1961


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Before Mass Tourism

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Early Tourism

Maspalomas as a health resort 1965

Ill tourist from Great Britain visit health resorts in Maspalomas


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Tourists from Las Palmas 1935

Sun and sand therapy


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Before Mass Tourism

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First buildings in San Agustin 1965

Restaurant La Rotonda


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Fishermen settlements in Maspalomas 1960

Early tourism



A Filled Vessel

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A Filled Vessel

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Growth of Playa del Ingles

1962 First settlements “El Pueblo” in the region of San Fernando. Tomato fields refer to agriculture.

1977 Situation after the urbanization plan of Maspalo-mas. Tourism releases a boom of construction activities in Playa del Ingles. San Fernando and Playa del Ingles are growing more and more together.

2005 The actual situation of Las Maspalomas. The area of Playa del Ingles is built up. Expansion possibilities in the area of Las Meloneras.



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A Filled Vessel

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Borders

Sea - Beach


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Dunes - City


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A Filled Vessel

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Topographical Border


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Pedestrian Walk


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A Filled Vessel

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End of Maspalomas


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Hotel Wall


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A Filled Vessel

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North of Residential Zone San Fernando


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Autopista


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A Filled Vessel

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Density of Inhabitants

El Tablero has the highest density of inhabitants of the Western part of Maspalomas Costa Canaria. There seems to be a gradient of density decreasing from North to South into the tourist areas of Campo International.

In the Western part of Maspalomas, San Fernando has a much higher density of inhabitants than Playa del Ingles and San Agustin.

Overall it can be said, that the Northern settlements have the higher density of inhabitants than the South.

Comparing the East with the West, it can be seen that at the Southern Tip in the East there are residences, whereas at Las Meloneras, the Southern Tip of the West-ern Area, there are no residential zones.

Sonnenland1695 inhabitants

San Agustin1565 inhabitants

Playa del Ingles5117 inhabitants

Campo International1151 inhabitants

San Fernando24546 inhabitants

El Hornillo1536 inhabitants

El Tablero15683 inhabitants


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Playa del Ingles has the highest density in beds in tourist accommodations of Maspalomas Costa Canaria.

Comparing the East with the West, it is visible that Playa del Ingles and San Agustin have a much higher density in beds than areas in the West like Campo International and Las Meloneras do (with the exception of Oasis).

Density of Tourist Accommodations

Sonnenland6041 beds

San Agustin10069 beds

Playa del Ingles58400 beds

Oasis3020 beds

Meloneras6907 beds

Campo International14097 beds

San Fernando

There is a clear division between a touristic South and a North without any tourist accommodations (San Fer-nando).

In the Western Part of Maspalomas, the tourist infrastruc-ture reaches farther into the North than it is the case in Playa del Ingles.


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A Filled Vessel

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Building Typologies

Hotels have one main entrance. The rooms are orien-tated towards the pool and they can only be rented.

Apartment blocks are mostly 5 - 6 storey high buildings.The apartments can be rented or bought. The ground floor is public with shops, bars and restaurants. The fa-cades towards the streets are usually closed and have a “Laubengang”. On the other side there are balconies oriented towards the private pool.

Bungalows are part of a gated community. The buildings are mostly 1 - 2 storey high and have a small piece of private ground, garden, surrounding it. Within the gates there are community pools and sport facilities. Bungalows can be rented or bought.



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A Filled Vessel

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Building Typologies

Hotels

Apartments

Bungalows

Shopping Centers

The bungalows take up the most surface, even though they only account for 16.6 % of the tourist accommoda-tion of Playa del Ingles.The apartment blocks are located along the main roads, housing retail surface on the ground floor level.


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Building Heights

Taller buildings are set along the main North - South axis, and the main road to the beach, emphasizing the public character of these streets and allowing the inhabitants to have a view on the sea from the middle of the densely populated zone.Another line of tall buildings along the main East - West road separate Playa del Ingles in the north from San Fer-nando. The rest of the urban tissue of Playa del Ingles consists of one to two storey high Bungalows, filling the topographical plane like a carpet.

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7-10

4-6

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1-2

Floors

Floors

Floors

Floors

Floors


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A Filled Vessel

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Public Spaces



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A Filled Vessel

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CC Botanico

CC Faro 2

CC Varadero

CC Playa Meloneras


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CC Yumbo

CC Rondo

CC Anexo II

CC Botanico

CC Cita

CC Faro 2

CC Plaza Maspalomas

CC Yupi

Beach


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A Filled Vessel

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The Beach



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A Filled Vessel

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Commercial Centers

The commercial centers are, besides the beach, the dunes and the streets, the only public spaces in Playa del Ingles. Daytime and nighttime are totally different. At daytime you can go shopping and eating, at nighttime the commercial centers transform into entertainment and party locations.Most of the commercial centers were planned in the sev-enties / eighties but since then there haven’t been any renovations or big changes. The shopping centers are old fashioned and often in a bad condition and therefore not very attractive for today’s tourist. Many places are empty all day. Only the cheap prices for alcohol seem to attract peo-ple (especially young and middle class people) to those places.


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CC Cita

The CC Cita was opened in 1974 and is not well visited anymore. Most of the bars and clubs in the basement are abandoned.


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A Filled Vessel

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CC Yupi

The CC Yupi in San Agustin was opened in 1970. It is mainly visited in the evening by tourists from Scandinavia.


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CC Anexo II

The CC Annexo II is located at the main access to the beach. During daytime it is quite crowded, in the evening completely empty.


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A Filled Vessel

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CC Plaza Maspalomas

The CC Plaza Maspalomas is the center of the nightlife in Playa del Ingles. Most of the young people come here to go out.


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Decay

Most of the commercial centers and especially their basement have definitely passed their zenith.


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A Filled Vessel

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Churches

Mosque at Yumbo

Templo Ecuménico at Plaza Maspalomas

San Agustin Capilla Centro Comercial at Yupi

The churches in Playa del Ingles and San Agustin are all situated in the commercial centers. There is a law that says that a certain percentage of a new shopping center has to be for public use. For example a church, municipal offices...




Transformations

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Transformations

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From Tourism to Residential

The rapid development of the area around Maspalomas Costa Canaria in the early sixties, which was possible because all the land was owned by only one Developer, Sr. Alejandro de Castillo y de Castillo, led to a very mono-cultural building structure in Playa del ingles. In the sev-enties, all the empty spaces were quickly occupied with hotel facilities during the rise of mass tourism.This dense and monoculture urban tissue was then fragmentated throughout the eighties, when a lot of people from Las Palmas invested their money in second residences in the South of Gran Canaria. This fragmentation of the land, the density and the total lack of public spaces paralyzed the area from changing and adapting to new forms and demands of tourism. Playa del Ingles has not changed since it has started to exist.

Today, the structures of Playa del Ingles are not fit to meet new concepts of tourism like the growing demand for all inclusive holidays or the services large resorts can offer their guests.

With the recent developments in Las Meloneras, the Western part of Maspalomas, Playa del Ingles will have to react and position itself again. The West and the East seem for a moment not to be in competition with each other anymore. While the new resorts address a more luxurious type of tourism, Playa del Ingles can only ap-peal to low-budget tourism with its obsolete structure.

Suitable guests for Playa del Ingles are old people who want to spend the winter in a mild climate and become temporary residents and young people during summer who are only interested in the beach and parties and therefore easy to please.

With the price decline resulting out of the obsolescence, Playa del Ingles suddenly finds itself in concurrence with its own former “support” city, San Fernando. More and more people start to live in the tourist zones since it be-comes financially reasonable.

While in the East, the area of San Fernando and Playa del Ingles, the residential zone seems to spread from North into the touristic South, in the West of Maspalo-mas the tourism seems to grow, under the pressure of the new developments, to the North, already reaching Sonnenland. These transformations could lead to a shift in meaning of the individual parts of the city.


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Transformations

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Los Molinos

Los Molinos used to be an apartment block built for em-ployees of the Hotel Santa Catalina. The people working in the tourist sector were given a place to live with their families. Nowadays, this apartment block contains mainly social housing in the midst of a tourist zone.

The typology of this building is very similar to the typol-ogy of the early hotels and apart hotels built in Playa del Ingles. A “Laubengang” serves all rooms from one side, defining the facade looking towards the street.On the other side of the building, the balconies overlook an enclosed pool area.Through changes on windows and doors, the building can be distinguished from a hotel with the same struc-ture.

Los Molinos is located on the edge between the local “support” city of San Fernando and the tourist zone of Playa del Ingles. Depending which side you’re looking to, the building has a completely different context. It is not decided yet to which part of the city it belongs to.


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Transformations

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Time Sharing

Mister Traub, from Germany, lives 5 month a year in Pla-ya del Ingles after he retired 12 years ago. He is guest on Gran Canaria for the past 35 years. The nice and warm weatherattracts him to the Canaries. He believes that not having to adapt is the reason why many German people come to Gran Canaria. You don’t have to learn a foreign lan-guage nor get used to eat with chopsticks he told us.

Misses Weible, from Hamburg, is in the wheelchair since her stroke. She spends the winters together with her 92- year-old mother in Playa del Ingles.

Time sharing is renting a place to live for a certain time every year for several years. Many older people stay dur-ing the winter months on the Canaries where the climate is mild. In summertime they live in their hometowns.


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Transformations

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Price Decline

CC Botanico

CC Faro 2

CC Varadero

CC Playa Meloneras

5500 € /m2

5400 € /m2


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CC Yumbo

CC Rondo

CC Anexo II

CC Botanico

CC Cita

CC Faro 2

CC Plaza Maspalomas

CC Yupi

Comparing the prices for retail surface in commercial centers, it can be seen that the square meter at CC Rondo has the same price as the square meter at the CC Cita.The prices in the tourist zone Playa del Ingles today are equal to the prices in the residential area of San Fernando.

Compared to the new commercial centers in Las Meloneras, the prices in Playa del Ingles must have dropped drastically.

There is gradient of increasing prices from East to West, which is equivalent to the in-crease of age of the built structure.

2300 € / m2

1200 € / m2

2300 € / m2


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Transformations

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Playa del Ingles36m21 bedroom apartment70 000 Euro

Playa del Ingles

1 bedroom apartment116 000 Euro

Fragmentation of Ownership

While in Las Meloneras, the West of Maspalomas Costa Canaria, large hotel resorts are developed, in Playa del Ingles, the East, apartments and bungalows are being sold, resulting in a fragmentation of ownership. This way, parcels are getting smaller and smaller in the East, blocking further development.


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Meloneras 375m2 / 400m2 exterior4 bedroom house1 150 000 Euro

Playa del Ingles60m2 indoor / 80m2 exterior1 bedroom70 000 Euro


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Transformations

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City Typologies

Infrastructure for fi x uses

Infrastructure for temporary uses


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Earning

Earning and Spending

Spending

Protected Areas

Agriculture





Sources / References

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Sources

Books

Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Con-cejalia de Turismo (2001): Evolucion e Implicaciones del Turismo en Maspalomas Costa Canarias, El Espacio Turistico Maspalomas Costa Canaria, Tomo I. Aqui Nue-vas Tecnologias- Ediciones.

Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Conce-jalia de Turismo (2001): Evolucion e Implicaciones del Turismo en Maspalomas Costa Canarias, Repercusion socioeconomicas del Turismo de Maspalomas Costa Ca-narias , Tomo II. Aqui Nuevas Tecnologias- Ediciones.

Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Conce-jalia de Turismo (1999): Maspalomas a natural legacy, Gran Canaria.

Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Con-cejalia de Turismo (1998): Maspalomas Antier, Gran Canaria.

El turismo como generador de arquitecturas, In: BASA, Publicacion del Colegio de Arquitectos de Ca-narias, no.28, p. 62-63.

Franco Lopez, Pedro José, Alby Tegaday Mendoza Quintana(2004):Maspalomas. Las Raices del Progreso 1964-2004, Gran Canaria.

Web pages

www.maspalomas.com, Plan General de Ordenacion, download: 12. December 2005

www.fotosantiguascanarias.org, download: 4. De-cember 2005

http://earth.google.com/

www.fotosantiguascanarias.org, download: 20. De-cember 2005

www.homesweethomespain.com

Fondation Le Corbusier, Arnaud Dercelles, Bibliothé-caire-Documentaliste, [email protected]


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References

Fondation le Corbusier

Statistics: BASA ° 28, www.maspalomas.com

http://earth.google.com

www.fotosantiguascanarias.org

Maspalomas Antier, Las Raices del Progreso1964-2004

Maspalomas Antier

Images: Las Raices del Progreso 1964-2004

Text: Maspalomas a natural legacy

Las Raices del Progreso 1964-2004

www.fotosantiguascanarias.org

Instituto Cartografico, http://earth.google.com

C. Dehli, M. Umbricht, http://earth.google.com

Maps: http://earth.google.com, Zones: C. Dehli,

M. Umbricht, Figures: www.maspalomas.com

Map: http://earth.google.com

Maps: http://earth.google.com


www.homesweethomespain.com


p.2 - 3

p. 12

p. 16 / 18 / 20 / 22

p. 28 - 29

p.30

p. 31

p. 32 - 33

p. 34 - 36

p. 37

p. 41

p. 42 -49

p. 50 - 51

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p. 78 - 79

p. 80 -81

p. 82 - 83


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Addresses

ISTACInstituto Canario de EstadisticaAvda. Juan XXIII Edificio Humiaga II35004 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Cabildo de Gran CanariaArea de Politica TerritorialC/. Professor Millares CarloEdif. Insular 135003 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Ayuntamiento de San Bartolomé de Tirajana Plaza Santiago 35100 Maspalomas, Gran Canaria0034 928 723 4000034 928 123 014

Concejaliá de Turismo MaspalomasClara, Leon QuintanaJunto a C.C. Santa Ana - Anexo 2 35100 Maspalomas, Gran Canaria


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Documents

Maspalomas Costa Canaria - STUDIO BASEL · Professors Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron ... Maspalomas Costa Canaria is located on the Southern tip of Gran Canaria, representing