Urban Structure of Spanish Cities: Evolution and Transformation
The division of a town into areas with characteristic morphology and functions is a result of a long process of urbanization. The Spanish city today has a complex structure. In conventional cities, there are areas of old, corresponding to pre-industrial urbanization, the widening of the industrial era, and the current edge.
The Pre-Industrial City: The Old Town
The urbanized part of the city from its origin to the beginning of industrialization in the mid-nineteenth century has great cultural heritage value. Many have been declared historical and artistic sites, and others, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The Pre-Industrial Heritage
The historic district usually has some common features:
- Almost all the cities were surrounded by walls.
- The plane used to be irregular, with narrow, winding streets.
- The urban area was closed, while many homes had patios, yards, and gardens.
- The building was dominated by low-rise townhouses.
- There were notable buildings: churches, mosques, palaces, and so on.
- The land uses were various: homes intermingled with workshops, shops, warehouses, and public buildings.
- Socially, the city coexisted with various groups, but there was a certain hierarchy: the center was where the main public buildings were located and the elite lived. Workers were living in the periphery, and ethnic and religious minorities in separate neighborhoods.
A) The Roman City
The Roman city usually has a regular plane, derived from the military camp, with two main routes from north to south and from east to west. At the junction of the two was the forum.
B) In the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the old quarters of most Spanish cities were confirmed.
- The Muslim city had a core walled Medina, where they placed the main buildings: the mosque, the souk or market, and residential neighborhoods. Outside it was the suburbs. The plane was very irregular with narrow, winding streets. Examples of cities with old Muslim influence are Cordoba and Toledo.
- The walled city was also Christian. Its center was once a castle or a church, and open spaces for the celebration of the market. Its plans were varied: irregular, radio-centric, or linear. Its most outstanding buildings were churches, noble palaces, and town halls. Houses had a trade workshop on the ground floor, and above, the home of the teacher and the attic for apprentices.
C) In the Renaissance
In the Renaissance, new neighborhoods of regular planes were created. Older places were also set up, where the market and the town hall were located, and surrounding buildings with uniform facades. From the left seat, new rectilinear streets emerged. The main buildings of this period were the municipalities located next to the church or the market, palaces, convents, and other buildings of municipal or real foundation.
D) In the Baroque and the Enlightenment
In the Baroque and the Enlightenment, the city was embellished. Straight lines were created in perspective, large squares, gardens, tree-lined avenues, and new construction neighborhoods that were homogeneous. Monumental buildings also rose, both religious and civil.
Transformation of the Industrial Era
The pre-industrial city suffered significant changes between the mid-nineteenth century and the 1960s.
A) The Plane Experiment
The plane experienced internal reforms and policy renewal. In the rest, a process of morphological and social deterioration began.
- The internal reforms of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century consisted of the correction and alignment of streets and the opening of new streets and squares. In the first half of the nineteenth century, this task was facilitated by the confiscation. In the second half of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, new squares were opened, and major roads were built. Tertiary functions were installed in its buildings, which became the city’s main street.
- Policies to renew the 1960s set out to get higher returns on urban land.
B) The Plot Thickens
The plot thickened in the industrial age to take advantage of more space in the building. Single-family buildings of one or two plants were replaced by group homes and those of greater height. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the historicist style was adopted. In the 1960s, the buildings adopted a more modern style, which is manifestly out of keeping with surrounding buildings.
C) Land Use
The land use of the old experienced a progressive outsourcing. From the first third of the twentieth century, renovated buildings set up tertiary activities, they needed access, and could profit from the high price of land (banks, etc.).
D) Social Changes
Socially, these changes increased social segregation in the old town. Popular groups moved to low-income neighborhoods that were degraded, while the other settled districts renewed higher income.
Problems and Changes in the Industrial Age
Today, the historic complex urban areas are suffering from different problems.
A) Street Layout
The street layout is unsuitable for modern traffic of people and cars, causing saturation and loss of squares and public spaces. Faced with this problem, streets have been pedestrianized, and plazas have been widened and landscaped.
B) Building Damage
The building suffered damage to some historic buildings and the contrast between neighborhoods.
C) Land Use Reduction
The land use has replaced the typical multi-functionality with a progressive reduction. Thus, degraded neighborhoods lose their traditional uses, such as the small workshop.
D) Social Polarization
Socially, the social mix of the old towns is replaced by progressive social polarization, which is offset by encouraging the installation of the middle classes.
The Industrial City
From the mid-nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century, cities that introduced modern industries attracted a large rural population and spread outside the pre-industrial walls. Most cities that exceeded the old tore down the old walls, which had been canceled defensive function for the progress of the artillery.
The Bourgeois Widening
The widening bourgeois is a new space that corresponds to the wishes of urban growth of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, their ideas of order, health, and economic benefits.
A) Creation and Plan
At the time of its creation, the expansion adopted a regular grid plan with straight streets, wider than the old ones. The plot was low density, with open blocks on one or two sides, with large spaces occupied by gardens. The building included bourgeois mansions and villas with gardens or buildings of medium height, in a historicist style. The first enlargements were made in Barcelona and Madrid. Then it spread to other cities in the late nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century.
B) Modifications Over Time
Over time, the widening underwent modifications to improve accessibility with the introduction of urban transport. The plot thickened by building the blocks on all four sides. The building is verticalized, especially in the 1960s. In land use, the expansion began to receive tertiary functions, which stretched from the historic center on its main streets. This ended up producing a division between a residential area and the bourgeoisie, and an outsourced industry dominated by shops and offices.
C) Present-Day Upgrading
At present, some areas of good accessibility and aging have been subject to upgrading works and beautification of properties.
Working-Class Neighborhoods and Industrial Suburbs
Industrial facilities were established in the urban periphery, near the main access roads to the city or adjacent to ports and railway stations. They also attracted services related to rail (halts, workshops, warehouses, etc.).
Workers who migrated to industrial cities could not be installed in the historic center because their most valued areas were expensive and were inhabited by the bourgeoisie, and its damaged areas had a high occupancy. Nor could they establish themselves in the bourgeois widening due to its high price, except in basements and attics or rooms created in the courtyard of the town houses (hidden neighborhoods). Therefore, they settled in slums around the expansion that emerged.
A) Initial Plan and Conditions
At the time of its inception, they adopted a plan in disarray because they came from private plots and uncontrolled land on the periphery carried out by their owners. The plot was closed and dense, dominated by small-size and low-quality housing, single-family homes, or apartments. These neighborhoods became hotbeds of infectious diseases and social unrest.
B) Present-Day Appreciation
At present, with urban growth, the old industrial areas and working-class neighborhoods have gained a more central position in the urban space, which has appreciated the ground they occupy.
Garden Suburbs
Garden suburbs are neighborhoods created in the late nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. They are the result of the dissemination in Spain of the ideas advocated by the naturalistic approach to nature and hygienists, who valued the positive effects of sun and fresh air on health. The result was proposed to bring the countryside to the city, which became concrete in the garden neighborhoods and in certain projects.
Initially projected for the proletariat, since the bourgeoisie resided in the prestigious downtown areas or urban expansion. At its creation, the Cheap Homes Act played a prominent role, inspired by garden workers in the colonies of England.
The Periphery and Recent Urban Transformations
From mid-1950, and especially in 1960, the main Spanish cities began tremendous growth. Its causes were the natural increase of rural population and immigration, attracted by the industrial boom and the progressive development of services, especially tourism. Thus, the city expanded considerably over a large area and created suburbs built along major transport routes. Urban neighborhoods are structured in different areas: residential areas, industrial areas, and areas of equipment.
A) Slums and Substandard Housing
Slums of substandard housing emerge on illegal land, rustic or green, and have no urban organization. The houses are self-built from scrap materials and lack basic services like water, electricity, or sanitation. Currently, the problem has again increased, linked to immigration and marginalized social groups.
B) Official Promotion Residential Neighborhoods
The residential neighborhoods of official promotion had their greatest development between 1940 and 1960. During this period, to try to alleviate the problem, subsidized housing was created and built with state aid and restrictions on the sale price or rental.
C) Private Development Housing Estates
The housing estates of private development came after 1960. They adopted open weave blocks or towers with wide spaces between the houses for gardens or parks. However, soon proliferated H-shaped blocks of excessive height and density, which created a layout of streets that look untidy.
D) Closed Block Neighborhoods
The neighborhoods of closed blocks have resurfaced in the 1980s and 1990s as a way to restore human-scale height and the organization of the streets.
E) Single-Family Housing Areas
Single-family housing areas at the periphery have proliferated since the 1980s. They have an open weave with individual buildings or attached housing exempt.
Industrial Areas and Peripheral Equipment
Industrial areas and peripheral equipment are located near the main access roads to the city. Industrial areas include industrial estates in the 1950s and 1960s, well-planned and disorganized. In some cases, they have been rehabilitated to accommodate new businesses. Areas of equipment are the result of the ongoing decentralization of economic activities towards the urban periphery.
Urban Agglomerations
Some cities have grown to connect to other towns. This creates agglomerations that can be of different types: metropolitan areas, conurbations, and mega-urban regions.
The Metropolitan Area
The metropolitan area is a conurbation consisting of a main city and several municipalities in their environment, maintaining important socio-economic relations. The characteristics of metropolitan areas are as follows:
- They are chaired by a major city.
- Among the central-city core area, social and economic relations are established.
- The central city provides employment and services, and the nuclei of the host area workers commute daily to the central city and install economic activity from this since they have more abundant and cheap land.
- The network of transport and communications is essential to ensure relations with the central city and between the cores that form the area.
- Social municipalities in the area show an urban lifestyle, with a predominance of young people and social variety.