The School of Architecture University of Navarra is once again showing its commitment to La Palma since it was affected in 2021 by the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano. 

On this occasion, 5th year students of the Degree in programs of study of Architecture and professors of the academic center will work on a project once again at proposal of the City Council of El Paso and partnership with the island council. A multifunctional center will be developed with residential, tourist and assistance spaces with the elderly as the protagonist. "In an increasingly aging society, residential typologies cannot be entrusted to conventional housing, as they are neither physically nor programmatically prepared to face the last stage of life", explains the proposal designed by the professors.

Students and professors have traveled to La Palma to work in situ on the knowledge site, engage in discussions with local experts and managers and analyze all those issues that are of interest to the project.

The project is part of the agreement signed in 2022 by the City Council of El Paso and the School of Architecture, through which students and teachers will work on projects of interest to the development of the municipality.

The students visited the Cumbre Vieja Natural Park Visitor Center, where Cecilio Rodríguez, Tourism, Environment and Heritage technician of the El Paso City Council, explained how the people of El Paso experienced the eruption of the volcano and how it has affected the island. 

Proposals for the National Volcanological Center

In the 2022-23 academic year, and at proposal of the City Council, the National Volcanological Center was projected at School of Architecture , an infrastructure more closely linked to the academic community. The exhibition with the work of the students, which was presented in Pamplona to the then mayor of El Paso, was inaugurated on October 11, 2023 in the town. It then moved to Santa Cruz de La Palma and, as of January 19, it will be exhibited in Los Llanos, on Díaz Pimienta Street.

The first project that the School of Architecture carried out in La Palma (course 2021-2022) consisted of the design of emergency and sustainable housing for those affected by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.