The design team described the Casa Iriarte / SOCO, located in the historic center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as an example of how to transform the restrictions imposed by a narrow plot into an opportunity for spatial innovation. A centralized patio was implemented to ensure lighting and air circulation inside, in addition to organizing the surrounding environments, breaking with traditional room divisions to create an open space where coexistence and leisure complement each other.
The narrowness of the lot served as a fundamental starting point for the project's development, dictating aspects such as layout, ventilation, and the daily use of the residence.
The construction adopts a clear hierarchy of durability. The main structure, composed of reinforced concrete and exposed blocks using picón—a local volcanic aggregate linked to the building traditions of the Canary Islands—is designed to have a lifespan exceeding 80 to 100 years.
The interior of the house is organized into a succession of large and interconnected rooms. Although inspired by the logic of the enfilade, these spaces avoid rigid functional hierarchies, allowing domestic life dynamics to be adapted through movable furniture and flexible uses. Thus, the home is configured as a place whose use is constantly negotiated by the residents, remaining open to modification and appropriation.
This functional malleability allows the building to function both as a residence and as a studio, with both uses coexisting and occupying the space as needs change. The rooms and their connections allow any function to expand, reduce, or give way to another activity over time, preserving the spatial logic inherent to the project.
In contrast, internal partitions, carpentry, and light elements have a shorter expected lifespan, estimated between 25 and 40 years, facilitating their replacement or adaptation. The facades, on the other hand, are conceived as modular and detachable technical layers, with a predicted longevity of about 30 to 50 years, which allows for their renewal without compromising the load-bearing structure.
Thus, the project's sustainability is primarily addressed through temporal dimension: planning the difference between what must endure and what can be changed. The house is seen as a domestic infrastructure capable of receiving new technologies, lifestyles, and uses throughout its existence.
Considering the context of the Canary Islands, where the scarcity of local resources requires the importation of many building materials, construction decisions directly impact the cost, execution time, and viability of the venture. Choosing to use what is available, relying on established methods and local workforce, and avoiding unnecessary solutions constitute forms of resistance to excess. Architecture, being necessary, direct, and deeply rooted in its environment, employs only the essential, and its character arises precisely from this limit: an ethic of sufficiency.
