In the early 60s, at the height of the Spanish tourism boom, the enclave of Maspalomas Costa Canaria was the epicenter of one of the most ambitious development projects ever conceived for southern Gran Canaria. The first major tourism plan, drafted by the prestigious architectural firm SETAP in 1961, projected a capacity of up to 40.000 tourist beds spread over an area of 2.000 hectares, implying an estimated population density of 60 inhabitants per hectare—a significant figure that marked the beginning of an innovative and visionary urban development model.
The population density of Maspalomas in 1961 can be estimated at between 25 and 40 inhabitants per square kilometer, reflecting an area that was still agricultural and undeveloped, just before the tourism boom that began in 1962 with the international competition for its development.
This plan, considered a pioneer in tourism development in the Canary Islands, was characterized by its undulating geometry, its respect for the dune system, and its integration through green spaces and well-defined residential areas. The project not only focused on an organized land use but also on a concept of a tourist city integrated with its surroundings, far from the constructive improvisation that would characterize other subsequent developments. A decade later, in 1972, the same firm was consulted by Maspalomas Costa Canaria to address a new challenge: how to scale the project to a capacity of 200.000 beds. Although this figure never fully materialized, it highlights the magnitude of the expectations surrounding the growth of tourism in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana.
The initial population density of 60 inhabitants per hectare—well above the island's rural average—reflected not only intensive planning but also a commitment to structured and functional tourism, at a time when sustainability was not yet a priority, but urban design with an international focus was. The Maspalomas project was the first of 17 tourism plans that SETAP would develop between 1961 and 1972 in various countries such as Spain, Portugal, and France, and which included developments such as Vilamoura in the Algarve and Las Marinas de Cogolin on the French Riviera. They all shared a common vision: planning through architecture, urban planning, and landscape, with tourism as the structuring axis of the territory.
Today, more than six decades later, the legacy of that model remains a subject of debate between advocates of controlled tourism planning and those who point to the erosion of the territory due to accumulated population and tourist pressure. However, the density envisioned in the original plan—60 inhabitants per hectare—remains a key figure for understanding how Maspalomas was born from a geometric dream that sought to harmonize tourism and landscape.
The southern part of the island of Gran Canaria, after several attempts at exploitation in the early 1950s through small tourist interventions—among which the proposal by landscaper Nicolás María Rubió, the project for the Hotel Maspalomas by architect Manuel Martín Fernández de la Torre in the Oasis area, and the design of a Parador by architect Eduardo Laforet—served as the first outline for the development that would later transform the Maspalomas estate into an internationally renowned tourist resort.
Following the first international competition for tourism-related ideas in Spain, known as "Residencial Elviria" (1960), the second experience was the Maspalomas Costa Canaria International Competition (1961). Its promoters, Salvador Guerrero for "Residencial Elviria" and Alejandro del Castillo y del Castillo, Count of Vega Grande, for "Maspalomas Costa Canaria," were motivated by the new State Development Plan and the recent creation of the Ministry of Information and Tourism, which sought to foster economic growth through tourism.
In 1961, some of the leading international architectural magazines announced the competition for Maspalomas Costa Canaria. Supported by the national press, the announcement helped highlight the enclave's extraordinary potential for hosting a first-class tourist resort. Headlines such as "Maspalomas, a world attraction" and "Maspalomas, the best beach in Europe" projected a tourist imagery around a city that did not yet exist, but was already beginning to establish itself as an emerging destination in the Atlantic Mediterranean.
The competition followed the guidelines established by the "Rules for International Competitions in Architecture and Urban Planning," published by the International Union of Architects (UIA) in 1955. This document, composed of 53 articles distributed across nine chapters, covered mandatory aspects such as the registration and admission of participants, prizes and compensation, copyright, UIA cooperation, and the organization and publicity of the competition. To ensure the rigor of the process, the Maspalomas promoters previously visited the organizers of the "Elviria" competition in Malaga to learn the procedure to be followed at each stage. Renowned figures participated in drafting the rules, such as geologist Simón Benítez Padilla; meteorologist Felipe Gracia (of the Spanish Air Force in the Canary Islands) in charge of the climatic study; and Grabados Topográficos SA of Madrid, which prepared the topographic analysis. The level of detail in the documentation was such that the international jury itself praised the technical work carried out by the Maspalomas Costa Canaria company.
During the registration period, open from June 1 to August 1, 1961, 148 participants from around the world registered. The submission of projects was scheduled for December 1 of that same year, and the jury's decision was announced on January 9, 1962. In compliance with UIA regulations, the jury was required to be composed of members of different nationalities, including at least one representative designated by the organization. In this case, the jury was chaired by architect Van der Broek (Netherlands) and also comprised Pierre Vago (France, representing the UIA), Luis Blanco Soler and Antonio Perpiñá Sebriá (Spain), Franco Albini (Italy), and Manuel de la Peña Suárez, who acted as secretary.
The jury's deliberations took place between January 4 and 9, 1962, in a warehouse in the Guanarteme area, equipped to house the 80 submitted proposals. According to the UIA's official magazine that same year, two projects were disqualified for violating Article 11 of the regulations, regarding the submission date and the anonymity of the entrants. The remaining 78 were evaluated according to urban and landscape criteria that highlighted respect for the dunes, the oasis, the natural environment, and the beaches; the conception of the complex as a tourist center rather than a city; the overall layout based on quality rather than building density; the correct layout of roads and access to the coast; the appropriate organization of open spaces; the possibility of phased development; and the technical feasibility of the complex.
After three elimination rounds, the jury selected twelve finalist projects, of which only seven received awards or mentions. First prize was awarded unanimously to project number 969696, submitted by the French group SETAP, whose approach stood out for its balance between environmental friendliness and an orderly urban structure. Second prize was declared void, while third prize went to project number 458900, from the group led by J. van den Bogaerde (Belgium). The jury also awarded an ex aequo distinction to the project presented by French architect Jacques Karbowsky, and honorable mentions to the projects of the Spanish teams led by Cruz López Muller, Carlos Picardo, and Carlos Martínez Caro; Rubens Henríquez Hernández and Javier Díaz Llanos la Roche; Javier Barroso Ladrón de Guevara, José Martín Crespo Díaz, and Ángel Orbe Cano; as well as to the group led by Jacek Preis (Poland).
The winning project, from the SETAP group, proposed a territorial organization focused on grouping tourist facilities into autonomous units connected by a network of roads and green spaces, allowing for orderly, phased implementation. This approach, innovative for its time, configured the plan through a zoning system that facilitated both service management and the progressive development of the new tourist destination, laying the foundations for what would later become one of the most important tourist hubs in the Canary Islands and Southern Europe.
