Half a century of town planning in Spanish historic centres: some hypotheses for analysing the liquidation process of the "traditional urban space"

Abstract

This article argues that the evolution of Spanish historic centres over the last 50 years has resulted in the erase of the typical urban attributes that have characterized them until the last third of the 20th century, in particular, their diversity in functional, residential and social terms (in short, their condition of ‘traditional urban space’). This inquiry is supported mainly by Alfonso Álvarez Mora’s five decades of research experience. It calls for a preliminary review of the emergence of the ‘historic centres question’ in Spain in the 1970s, the relevance of the ‘Bologna experience’ and the scope it had on national legislation aimed at the conservation and rehabilitation of urban fabrics. Based on the assumptions of this seminal reference, the article sets out a series of hypotheses concerning, on the one hand, the urban transformations that have generally affected traditional urban spaces and have shaped the current Spanish historic centres; and, on the other hand, three lines of research that can shape the analysis of this phenomenon.