Agroaldea
It is a monograph on landscape and traditional architecture in the rural areas of the Canary Islands.
Volume II, which it was recently published, It includes information about El Hierro, La Gomera, La Palma, Tenerife and Western haciendas; It is the most extensive published (464 pages) and has nearly two thousand photographs with their captions in which it is explained and locate places and buildings photographed.
In addition, this volume are included in former and current maps, aerial photographs and, at the end of each chapter, numerous photographs of "Yesterday and Today", comparison of past and present images that we see what has been the transformation of our villages and towns (are all municipalities of the islands) after 50, 80 or even more than 120 years.
In Volume I a series of works whose main protagonist traditional housing seen from the perspective of different specialties were grouped (architecture, rehabilitation, history, geography, ethnography, botany, art, literature…).
Atlantic corners of this monograph pays homage to this architecture located in our fields and who built it, they used and lived, which aims to serve the same time to make it known, value and protect. It is a simple and harmonious architecture, sober and functional, but extraordinarily beautiful that, being so close to us, It is the same time a great unknown.
cultural heritage of our ancestors, born and lives with nature itself. Their materials come from it, often in the same place in which the building is constructed: stone, land, cal, wood ... hence the simplicity and balance with the space around her. Made with a huge practicality learned generation after generation, mainly due to the need for shelter (home), or to perform other activities related to the livelihood (mills, eras, ovens, blocks, aljibes, salinas, roads…), -many also has a great sense of beauty sometimes intuitive,. They are useful places, built for survival, but also aesthetically pleasing and respectful and in harmony with the landscape.
It is probably, next to the natural landscape and agricultural land, and in addition to the historic centers, the greatest asset of these islands, a treasure of enormous value that belongs to everyone and that, Unfortunately, It is disappearing from our fields because of their abandonment, the apathy, the absence of protection and the lack of judgment and sensitivity rehabilitations, many times due to ignorance and lack of counseling people prepared, as well as information and documentation on the subject.
This is the main reason that encouraged us to do this work: the power to help drive a new vision and sensitivity to this battered, little known and increasingly scarce assets.
Volume III is already well advanced and their authors advertise their publication before next Christmas. It will address Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, the eastern haciendas and a final chapter to collect a vast literature on Canarian architecture.
To do this, subscription campaign and micropatronage (crowdfunding) It has been reformulated with new changes for people who want to continue to support the project and will end when published. To know the different options and the advantages obtained participating in it can obtain information on the web: http://www.rinconesdelatlantico.es/crowdfunding.php.