On his sojourn across the Atlantic, Christopher Columbus (and his posse of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María) made a pit stop in the Canary Islands, that tempting archipelago off the coast of Morocco. Sadly, he couldn’t have fully appreciated the volcanic islands’ stunning viewpoints, as this extraordinary outlook structure wasn’t possible to construct until our time.
© JLBM, Architect
The Mirador de Abrante by JLBM, Architectis situated in Agulo on the lilliputian isle of La Gomera, which suffers from fewer tourist traps than its neighbor Tenerife. Most importantly, the views are stunning.
© JLBM, Architect
Amid otherwise untouched terrain, the viewing platform cantilevers outward from a rust-colored cliff that doubles as a hiking trail resting point. Inside, there’s a tourist information office and a cafeteria.
The vertigo-inducing glass-bottom views are made possible by a tightly-knit steel frame and reinforced, water-proofed concrete footing inserted into a discrete excavation within the cliff. Just don’t think about the fact that there’s only a .4-inch layer of tempered glass between you and a swift tumble into the ocean.
For more hair-raising cantilevered structures, check out this amazing collection of finely balanced projects drawn from the Architizer database.