FIT ! The Canary Islands Tourism and Innovation Factory | gpy arquitectos

The FIT! Canary Islands Tourism and Innovation Factory is conceived of as a strategic meeting point, connected to both the business and the university sector, aiming to create synergies between the stakeholders in the tourism industry and to contribute to improved quality and excellence. 

The FIT is located in the Costa Adeje Tourism Development Centre, a benchmark institute for education in the tourism sector.

Our project deals with the refurbishing of two spaces on the ground floor and basement of the existing building, which were previously used as storerooms. The new premises offer spaces designed to implement the latest products and management models in the fields of catering, leisure, business and hospitality and to provide specialised training and interior design consultancy services.

We created a large, fluid space for interaction and exchange, connecting the centre’s two levels by a central open staircase. The continuous, multifunctional space can easily be divided into meeting, presentation and conference areas and showrooms by means of a space division system of retractable fabric blinds and curtains, assuring different degrees of independence, isolation and privacy.

The functional space is separated from the technical area at the periphery by a continuous enveloping of cast U-glass. The natural darkness of the basement level is thus inverted by a neutral, abstract, back-lit surface that acts as a filter towards an imaginary, external space.

Along with the system of dividing curtains, colour and light play an important role in the definition and dissolution of the space that is in constant flux.