Architect from Gran Canaria who defined the modern "Canarian style". His iconic works include the Hotel Santa Catalina and numerous buildings in Las Palmas.
Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1894. He studied Architecture in Madrid, graduating in 1921, and returned to Gran Canaria to become the most influential architect on the islands in the twentieth century. Over nearly six decades of professional activity he shaped the urban landscape of Las Palmas with a sensitivity that combined European modernity with the Canarian constructive tradition.
His most iconic work is the Hotel Santa Catalina, built in 1890 and remodelled by him in the 1930s, which defined the type of the stately colonial-environment hotel adapted to the Atlantic. But his contribution goes far beyond that building: he designed the Civil Government headquarters, the Vegueta Market, the old Gando airport and dozens of residential and institutional buildings. What Martín-Fernández de la Torre brought was a synthesis between the European inter-war rationalism and the plastic values of Canarian vernacular architecture: the white walls, the deep openings, the wooden galleries.
He died in 1980, leaving a material legacy that is today the object of recognition and heritage protection. His buildings have been listed as assets of cultural interest and several have been carefully rehabilitated. The Higher Technical School of Architecture in Las Palmas pays tribute to his legacy as the founder of an architectural tradition specific to the islands.