In Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, a former oil tank has been transformed into the El Tanque Cultural Space, and is now accompanied by a redesign of the outdoor open space into a banana garden, conceived by Menis Arquitectos. Fernando Menis himself had undertaken the rehabilitation of El Tanque into a cultural space, which was listed as a protected cultural asset in 2014. This year El Tanque celebrates its 25 years of existence with an ecological landscape project by the architect himself.

With a diameter of 50 metres and a height of almost 20 metres, the El Tanque Cultural Space takes its shape from a huge container that for many years was used to refine and store crude oil. After its renovation into a cultural space, it has mainly retained its original exterior and interior appearance, with minimal architectural intervention, recycling and incorporating waste materials. This verdant project offers the Cabo Llanos neighbourhood its first green public space. The new banana garden, which also houses other Canary Island species, reflects the local agricultural landscape before industrialisation, generating a place where different eras, cultures and sensitivities coexisted and shaped the identity of the region.

Following the same logic of reuse and recycling, Menis Arquitectos designed the lighting and furniture with discarded elements. Thus, divers' oxygen tanks were transformed and moulded into lamps with a playful attitude reminiscent of the figures from the Minions cartoon. After all, one of the main users of the garden are children. The project also follows a conscious strategy in terms of light pollution, as does the irrigation of the greenery, which is supplied with recycled water.

“Retracing the agricultural history of Santa Cruz, which had disappeared in all its coastal areas, the area around El Tanque was planted with banana trees of the Musa paradisiaca species, while the tomatoes simply sprouted, since there must have been vines over 90 years old, incredible survivors of an entire industrial era, which, after preparing the soil and with a little irrigation, grew back because the earth, the soil, has memory, even if we sometimes forget it,” explains Fernando Menis.