Tenerife is a hilly island in the Atlantic with a population of about 500 inhabitants per square kilometer, but with a very high rate of land occupation with low density, making it ripe to oversaturate and to overwhelm its sustainability.

The island is a field of autonomous, self-regenerating cells as a city made out of houses; a perceived territoriality turned urbanity, or a “terrurbanity.” A node is generated in this frame working with materials and local suppliers, but generating a denser and more efficient cell with a new paradigm within it. All of this led to a process of empowerment of this local private project.

In terms of efficiency, the highest density possible was sought; to create the maximum number of dwellings. The great depth of the steeply sloping plot presaged courtyards inside it. Both reasons led to the implementation of a single strategy to overexploit the courtyards and densify their use. A courtyard house that raises one piece of it as a high plane allows passage through the courtyard under the corridor that became stairs.

This scheme, along with its neighbor, produces a symbiosis so strong that it autoregulates and promotes relations. This module, repeated six times, generates the building and achieves high energy and use efficiency in order to to obtain a controlled, shaded, and protected public space that serves as the lung and heart of the building. The scheme also leads naturally to community life on top to the roofing, providing this space as a recreation area (the garden).

The homes have two or three rooms of small dimensions but with an enormous spatiality. All houses have identical conditions of orientation, views, height, access, ventilation, and lighting.