Temporal evolution of large dam designs in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands)

The usefulness of ensuring the irrigation of their lands, made the farmers ask the engineers to draw up projects for large dams on the island of Gran Canaria, and more than 300 walls were designed between 1862 and 1980: a figure more than sufficient to gauge the importance of what was built during the water battle (79 large dams on 1,558 km(2)). From the rationalism of the first decades, with some very daring projects in the 30's, functional pragmatism was imposed in the 50's. In the 60's, Dam Surveillance noted a certain technical lag with the dams of peninsular Spain. Not only in design criteria, but also in terms of materials, means and construction techniques, which led to new designs of large dams and materials in the 1970s. Thus, in these lines we intend to sketch briefly, then, the temporal evolution of the design, with special attention to the expressive power of the innovative projects.