Uploaded on 2014-10-21 by AlejandroPC

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14139242306903179.jpg This big building houses the city courts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) The Canary Islands archipelago consists of seven islands. They are in the Atlantic Ocean, next to the west coast of Morocco (Africa). Due to their geographical situation, these small islands have to import almost all of the modern building construction materials. Until the early twentieth century, the traditional architecture was made of local materials like stone, mortar of soil, lime and sand, and wood. But during last century, the arriving of the new building techniques and materials changed the economy of local building. The large use of reinforced concrete structures, it forced to import steel and cement from the continent (mainly from Spain). Because of the higher requirements for building systems (electrical systems, thermal systems, facade systems, domotic systems,...), we import most of our building systems and materials. The Building of City Courts, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria city, is the newest public building in the Gran Canaria Island. Almost every material and system of this building was imported from out of the islands: steel and cements from Spain (continental territory), facade systems, lighting and climate systems, and electrical systems were imported from France, Germany, the Netherlands or Italy among other countries. It´s a great cost for a small economy and an isolated territory like Canary Islands.