19th century
From the second half of the century, plans for expansion and interior reform appear, which is where the new peninsular urbanism actually begins. The need to proceed to demolish the walls and expand the cities becomes imperative. The increase in population, the incipient industry and new activities with intensive land requirements, such as the railway, could not be satisfied simply with the release or better use of the land in the old towns. The wall had lost all military value, due to the progress of artillery, and its fiscal function as an internal customs office was contrary to the spirit of capitalism and free trade.
The first Law of Ensanche dates back to 1864 (June 29), and states that City Councils can develop land, expropriating the land for roads and public uses at their own expense. To compensate them for these responsibilities, the State gives them the land tax on the area for 25 years. In 1867, the planning technique was consecrated with the Regulations of the aforementioned Expansion Law, which specified the way to execute the Expansion Plan, which must have a Report, Plans and Economic Plan for its viability. In 1876 a new Population Expansion Law was enacted that retouched some non-basic aspects.
The first major expansion carried out in Spain is that of Barcelona, the work of engineer Ildefonso Cerdá, which was approved in 1859. Since the middle of the century, Barcelona had problems with overcrowding in the historic city and had a pressing need to gain new spaces.
The planning of the expansion was complicated from the beginning. The plans to demolish the walls clashed with the interests of the army, which also demanded financial compensation in exchange for the land it occupied. In 1854, the demolition of these walls was authorized by the government of Espartero and Leopoldo O'Donnell and the Civil Government commissioned Cerdá to draw up the topographic map and plan the expansion. Cerdá proposed unlimited growth, proposing the expansion as a new city not articulated around the historic center. Coinciding with the annexation to Barcelona of the towns of Horta, Gracia, Sans, Sarriá, etc., an enormous space was opened that allowed the rapid growth of the city.
Against Cerdá's plan, in 1859 the city council called a competition for urban planning projects, of which the project by architect Rovira i Trias was the winner. The project is in accordance with the pretensions of the bourgeoisie: the streets are only 12 m wide, the possibility of exceeding the heights proposed by Cerdá is considered, there is a clear separation of social classes and the buildings have a greater density.
The government did not accept this plan and on May 31, 1860, the decree that put Cerdá's plan into action was published and on September 4, Queen Isabel II laid the first stone of the first house in the expansion. The proposed layout consisted of a grid of streets that defined blocks measuring 113 meters on each side, chamfered at their corners. These blocks had to be built on two or three of their sides at most. The streets were from 20 m to 50 m wide. The interior of these blocks would be occupied by gardens and spaces for public services distributed evenly were planned.
In 1863, the first apartment blocks were built on the chamfered blocks, even with the rejection of numerous sectors of the city. For years, many streets remained without paving, sidewalks, lighting or names, being identified by numbers, which gave an aspect of provisionality to the area. However, the trade and industrialization of Catalonia were creating a bourgeois class that settled in the new space.
Finally, the densification ended up being greater than what was initially designed, since it was built on the four sides of the blocks, in the interior patios, and the number of floors was increased, although the orthogonal layout was maintained.
Already at the end of the century, Jovellanos proposed the purchase of land on the outskirts of Madrid to develop it rationally and expand the city. In 1846 Juan Merlo presented a new project that was also frustrated. In 1857 the Ministry of Development ordered the study of an expansion for Madrid under the direction of the architect and engineer Carlos María de Castro and Carlos Ibáñez de Ibero. The report of the plan was published in 1860. A limit was indicated, which Castro converted into a circle for the new city.
For the first time, zoning was introduced, delimiting land dedicated to industry, intensive housing, medium-density areas or urbanized park. All of this extends in an orthogonal layout (similar to Cerdá's works) with North, South, East and West orientations and roads of different widths (30, 20 or 15m) according to their hierarchy.
However, it presented some differences with Cerdá's plan for Barcelona, such as the fact that it was limited in its extension, presented a clear zoning, a varied morphology and tried to respect and integrate the ancient city of Madrid.
The city of Castro was socially segregated from the beginning, with its aristocratic neighborhood in the Castellana axis, the bourgeois area in the current Salamanca neighborhood, and working-class neighborhoods such as Chamberí or the one located south of the Retiro Park. This was achieved with three different types of apples:
Initially, a height of three floors of the buildings and an occupancy of 50% were set. However, it was proposed in 1863 to increase the buildable height to ground floor plus four floors. Finally the system was abused, which reinforced the rejection of the idea of expansion.
In the century the first Alienation Plan of Albacete (1882-1886) was developed, which consisted of the widening and rectification of existing streets with a hygienist and surgical nature.
The first expansion plan for Albacete itself took place between 1907 and 1911. This involved the construction of an extraordinary facility, the Abelardo Sánchez Park, of a size similar to what the city had at that time. Furthermore, the growth of the city developed around two areas: the Industria neighborhood "Industria (Albacete)") and Ancha Street.
The Ensanche Plan par excellence of Albacete was drawn up between 1920 and 1922. The prosperity of the city between the wars resulted in a pharaonic plan consisting of the growth of the city in the shape of an oil slick featuring small blocks arranged in a radiocentric structure, and the construction of a ring road or southern ring road.
Bilbao had the problem that its municipal area was small. The first expansion project dates back to 1801 and was proposed by the authorities of the neighboring municipality of Abando. It was written by Silvestre Pérez and was paralyzed by the wars.
In 1861 he received authorization from Queen Isabel II to prepare an expansion plan, which was entrusted to the engineer Amado Lázaro. This project covered 229 hectares and was rejected by the authorities.
In 1873 a new plan was drawn up by the architect Severino de Achúrcarro") and the civil engineers Pablo de Alzola and Ernesto de Hoffmeyer. Their project was approved in 1876 and included an elliptical square as its center (Plaza Federico Moyúa), crossed by a large avenue 30 meters wide and several smaller streets. Like Cerdá, they proposed chamfered blocks.
This expansion became too small and in 1896 the Bilbao city council commissioned Enrique Epalza with a project for its expansion, which did not see the light of day but served as the basis for Federico de Ugalde's project, which won the 1904 ideas competition for the expansion of the expansion. The Bilbao expansion was built on the left bank of the estuary, on the land on which Silvestre Pérez designed the Puerto de la Paz.
It is an expansion of the city of Vitoria, carried out during the 19th century, which was formerly the space outside the walls to the south of the city that was used to hold fairs and markets. It was made after the construction of the Plaza de España or Plaza Nueva, which is a closed, square enclosure with semicircular arch portals. The bourgeois expansion") was developed between the aforementioned square and the railway station, taking Eduardo Dato Street, originally called Calle de la Estación, as its main axis. The typical architecture of this area is made up of bright buildings composed of large windows, elegant balconies and numerous viewpoints.
San Sebastián also developed its own expansion project in 1854, a task that was entrusted to the architect Antonio Cortázar. His project was greatly influenced by Cerdà's model. The project began to be built in 1864 and was based on the extension of Calle Mayor and a series of orthogonal streets from it. The project differentiated areas for the wealthy classes, workers and tourists, delimited by hierarchical streets.
Valencia demolished its walls in 1865 and a roundabout was created in their place. The first expansion was planned in 1858 and began in 1877 following the project formulated by the architects José Calvo, Joaquín María Arnau and Luis Ferreres and was also based on the Cerdá grid, with large blocks and houses intended for the bourgeois classes. It surrounded the old town to the south. In 1907 an extension was carried out.
Expansion project in the city of Gijón that had to wait for the demolition of the Carlist wall of the city to begin construction in 1867. It had the peculiarity compared to other expansions of being very little built, not being completed until the 1970s and being occupied by recreational and sports buildings as well as humble and proletarian homes. It would give rise to the La Arena neighborhood "La Arena (Gijón)") and part of the El Centro neighborhood "El Centro (Gijón)").
The City of León "León (Spain)") approved its Ensanche plan in 1904, which had the Gran Vía de San Marcos as its main axis, which converged at the Plaza de Santo Domingo. Calle Ordoño II joined this square with that of Guzmán el Bueno, responsible for distributing traffic from the railway station through the streets of Rome and the Argentine Republic. From these large axes, blocks measuring 100m on a side and 1 ha in area were delimited, only varied to the NE to connect with the old town. However, the layout was varied, with the creation of diagonal streets, in order to create more façade lines that would revalue the properties. The Final Result was the loss of the original layout, the increase in intersections, the disappearance of gardens and perspectives.
The Ensanche of Pamplona was not built at the same time as many other Spanish cities, as construction began in the 1920s and was completed in the 1950s.
In any case, it was inspired by the Cerdá Plan: it is composed of chamfered octagonal blocks. The streets are straight, with a large diagonal street: Avenida de la Baja Navarra.
During the century, Pamplona saw its population increase. Given the refusal to tear down the walls, new floors of housing are built on top of old homes, that is, the height of the buildings is raised. With the Confiscation of Mendizábal, spaces were used, before convents or churches, to build. In the second half of the century, Pamplona asked to open the walls, to be able to grow, and not continue living in unhealthy situations, and with such housing needs. Requests are not accepted. Finally, the Army, after negotiation, agreed to tear down two of the bastions in 1884, to build the First Ensanche, where the infantry barracks and about six blocks of buildings for the bourgeoisie would be built, so the problem was not solved for the majority of the population. In any case, it was the first notable urban reform in a long time. As has already been said, the problem had not been solved, so they continued to insist on tearing down the walls, until they finally agreed at the beginning of the century, demonstrating, after the First World War, the uselessness of the walls. Part of these were thrown in 1915, and on November 29, 1920, the first stone was laid.
Pamplona was thus able to enjoy its first expansion, after long negotiations with the military.
Likewise, the imprint of Cerdà's work in the expansions of Terrasa, Sabadell, Cartagena "Cartagena (Spain)") or that of Villanueva y Geltrú, by Francisco Gumá Ferrán, is very notable. Other architects such as Federico Keller followed Cerdà's plan in the image and similarity for other cities in Spain such as Miranda de Ebro, among others.