MENIS, FERNANDO
This book explores the landscape influences in the major projects of Fernando Menis. The clear, powerful landscape that surrounds me on the island is responsible for the architecture I conceive and produce. When I think of a new building, I consider its plasticity; I do not see it as a row of objects but as a unified work which begins from its form - a work which conforms. Projects are conceived through their volumes; extracted and moulded, shaped. This is how the landscape of Tenerife was made. I think again about the program, about functionality, and I try to define a program which has the potential to evolve, to grow; volume and functionality. I propose architecture that is needed by the environment. A continuous line of thought can be traced all the way from the first works produced during my partnership in Artengo Menis Pastrana -AMP - right up to the ones now under development in my new independent office, Menis Arquitectos. The projects and buildings shown in this book are good examples of this. The experimentation I engaged in during construction of the MAGMA, in which I collaborated with my colleagues Artengo and Pastrana, led to new projects under development today; the quantity of materials that appeared during the restoration of the Tanque created a unique staircase at the MM House, whereas growing up in a landscape full of banana trees gave this house a façade that resembles the trunk of a palm tree. --Fernando Menis
