Botanical Garden El Drago | Menis Arquitectos

Architects: Fernando Menis, Felipe Artengo, José María Rguez. Pastrana

Client: The Government of the Canary Islands

In the '80s, Fernando Menis began his professional career in the Canary Islands after winning together with his two partners at the time, the El Drago Park Rehabilitation Competition. At a time when concepts such as sustainability or ecology could still be exotic, the approach proposed was pioneering since the Drago project was approached by the architects as an opportunity to restore the nature that had surrounded the ancient tree before it was invaded by traffic and construction. 

This rehabilitation of a brutally degraded landscape puts in the centre, symbolically, the oldest specimen of El Drago (Dracaena Drago) that is conserved in the Atlantic archipelago, a tree 16 m high, with a circumference of 20 m in base. An endemic species of the Canary Islands, with a slow growth, this ancient tree is mythical, a guardian of the islands. The rehabilitation design recovers the original nature of the place by repopulating the park grounds with primitive native species at altitudes where they grow naturally (tabaibas, beech trees, heathers, palms, linden trees, laurel trees, etc.). The layout features a free geometry, adapted to the topography, which is only modified to produce spaces and pathways with accessible slopes. At the foot of the Drago, an area dedicated to the young drago trees was created, called "The Drago Creche".