On Monday, January 14, at 19:30 h., The Canary Museum hosts the reception of the archives of the architects José Luis Jiménez Domínguez (1908-1987) and José Luis Jiménez Saavedra (1941-2014). The documentary collections of both architects, father and son, have been donated to the cultural institution by their heirs, represented by the widow of the second, Carmen Castells Sanchís. Diego López Díaz, president of El Museo Canario, participated in the event; Fernando Betancor Pérez, archivist of the institution; Faustino García Márquez, architect; and Juan Jesús Saavedra Ay
ala, rigger. The entry of the archive of both faculties is a huge enrichment for the archival section of funds and private collections of The Canary Museum, in which until now there was no documentary set focused on this architectural discipline that combines the technical with the artistic. It is also a fundamental piece for the best knowledge of the architecture designed and built in the Canary Islands in the twentieth century, although it can be traced in a preferential way the erected on the island of Gran Canaria throughout its recent hi
story. On the one hand, these are two complete documentary funds, a fact that allows us to study in detail the evolution of the architectural concept of each of the architects along their respective professional careers. This fact, together with the personal and professional closeness between the two, makes it possible to analyze the conceptual and aesthetic relationships, continuities and ruptures that occurred between the two architects – and also between two stages of the history of architecture –, making these documentary groups complementary. However, each of them maintains the independence to which the archival principle of provenance obliges, a rule that, on the other hand, was already respected by the producers since its origin and which the museum, following the technical standards existing in the archival field, will also m
aintain. On the other hand, the sum of the two documentary funds covers the temporal space between the 1940s – José Luis Jiménez Domínguez, collegiate No. 7 of the College of Architects of the Canary Islands, obtained its title in 1940 – and 1990, long period of time of enormous constructive activity in Gran Canaria, and in general in the archipelago, a fact that explains the large volume of documentation that
integrates both funds. The file generated by José Luis Jiménez Domínguez consists of 42 boxes, 3,085 files and 6 files of handwritten files, while that of José Luis Jiménez Saavedra collects 46 boxes plus 15 other boxes of plans, 326 files and 150 (plans). Such an extensive documentary volume reveals the great role that these architects played in shaping the architectural profile that we can still contemplate today both in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and in other Canarian populations.