Green rings plan
Introduction
Pedro Bidagor Lasarte (San Sebastián, November 12, 1906-San Sebastián, August 14, 1996) was a Spanish architect and urban planner.[1][2]His career was marked by being the driving force behind the institutionalization process of modern urban planning in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.[3] In 1939 he was the author of the so-called Bidagor Plan, an urban plan for Madrid. which did not become effective until a decade later in 1941.[4] He carried out urban planning consulting work in other cities such as Seville.[5].
Biography
Bidagor's work is linked to the city of Madrid, based on his studies at the Madrid School of Architecture that he carried out in the period between 1922 and 1931. At the end of the Civil War he headed the technical office of the Madrid Reconstruction Commission and directed the first General Urban Planning Plan (1939-1946) and the promotion of the extension of Castellana as the backbone of the new urban development.[4].
He also participated in the First Urban Planning Master Plan of San Sebastián (1962) and in the Urban Planning Plan of Guipúzcoa. He carried out the project for the Higher Technical School of Forestry Engineers "Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Forestes (Polytechnic University of Madrid)") of the University City and developed the extension of the Banco de Bilbao building "Edificio del Banco de Bilbao (Madrid)") that extended along Sevilla Street (1975-1981). He was a member of the Francisco de Ibero Institute").[2].
During his time at the head of the Technical Directorate of the Planning Commission of Madrid (1945-1956), the foundations of public land policy were laid as the operational arm of the General Plan, from whose fruits the city has benefited to this day. This commitment to management was later extended to the head of the General Directorate of Urban Planning and the Urbanization Management of the Ministry of Housing (1957-1969), contributing decisively to the consolidation of the new Land Law.
Bidagor and post-war urbanism
Since the century, the idea of the urban plan as a project capable of imagining and promoting the future of the city would appear as a utopia, in sharp contrast to the reality of a fragmentary urban management, trapped in the duality between growth, supported by the guidelines drawn in the plans of Ensanche and the Interior Reform of the existing city.[1] In the decades prior to the Civil War, the lack of a true Urban Plan capable of organizing the emerging Madrid metropolis became evident, giving rise to a competition. convened by the city council in 1929 in which the proposal of the architect and urban planner Secundino Zuazo with Hermann Jansen stood out, although it was not awarded.