Urban Morphology in Spain: Evolution of Cities and Their Structure

Evolution of Spanish Cities: Urban Morphology

Urban morphology is the first aspect to consider when studying the external shape of a city. It is influenced by its location and by the physical situation of the city within its geographical environment. The form a city preferentially takes depends on several factors:

• Urban plan: a graphic scale representation of the built surface and free spaces. City layouts may be irregular, radiocentric, rectangular quadrupole, or orthogonal.
• Buildings: collective buildings (blocks of several floors) or individual buildings (detached houses). The arrangement of buildings in space, and the plot, may be compact or open.
• Land use: commercial, industrial, residential.

Division and Structure of the City

The structure of a city and its morphology and functional interests are characterized by the following areas:

• Residential area: old town, urban expansion (ensanche), and peripheral areas.
• Commercial and business area: the old center.
• Industrial area: peripheral facilities.

The old city is the urbanized part of the city that developed around its original industrial boom, and it holds historic and artistic value.

Variations Over History

Pre-industrial City

All cities were surrounded by walls (defensive, fiscal and health-related), forming a compact framework. Land uses were mixed: residential, commercial, and business, with a social hierarchy in which the elite lived close to the center while day laborers lived on the outskirts.

City plans were preferentially of the following origins:

• Roman: regular, rectangular or orthogonal grid with two main streets crossing, as in Mérida, León, and Zaragoza.
• Muslim: disorganized, irregular layout with winding streets, as in Córdoba, Sevilla, and the Albaicín.
• Christian: a radiocentric layout around the cathedral (Santiago de Compostela, Oviedo).
• Renaissance: regular grids around the main square (Madrid, Salamanca).
• Baroque: embellishment of the old city (Jaén, Úbeda).

Industrial City (First Phase)

In the nineteenth century, the already dense city took advantage of vertical construction, with buildings of five floors. Over time, many of these buildings deteriorated. Modern expansions (ensanches) appeared, and the bourgeoisie abandoned the old town, which was occupied by poor elderly residents. From the 1960s, policies of renovation demolished old buildings to build new ones. From 1975, conservationist policies favored preserving the facades.

Industrial City (Second Phase): The Ensanche

The nineteenth-century urban expansion began in the regions with industrial and urban development, driven by the rural exodus. In Burgos and other cities, the ensanche arose alongside the old town, forming regular industrial areas on the periphery. The plan was open and loose at first but became denser over time, with vertical buildings of seven to nine floors. Land uses were residential, commercial, business, and banking. Examples include the Castro Plan in Madrid and the Cerdà Plan in Barcelona.

Peripheral Urban Area

Urbanization spread from the center along the main transport axes of the city. After 1960, growth in the big regions, the rural exodus, and the development of industry led to three types of peripheral areas:

• Residential: including neighborhoods of distinct social classes.
• Shantytowns (chabolas): above-ground homes built with makeshift materials, lacking basic services, irregular and dense layouts, with small houses.
• Official promotion (VPO): regular, flat, open layouts with parking, gardens, and apartments occupied by social groups of different qualities.
• Single-family houses (unifamiliares): middle-class and upper-class housing seeking contact with nature, dependent on the use of the car.

Urban System

The core city of the urban system is the center of a city of more than 10,000 inhabitants with high density, where activities, land, and relationships are concentrated. The urban system establishes hierarchical relationships among cities, which present different characteristics depending on their size and position:

• Small cities: around 50,000 inhabitants, with few specialized functions, transport nodes, and commercial influence in their region (Maracena, Albolote, Gabias).
• Medium-sized cities: 50,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, often provincial capitals (Jaén, Almería), with tertiary or port functions (Motril).
• Large cities or metropolises: more than 200,000 inhabitants, with several specialized functions and industrial and service activities. Types include:
  • National metropolises: more than 3 million inhabitants, with national and international influence (Barcelona, Madrid).
  • Regional metropolises: 500,000 to 1 million inhabitants, with administrative functions and regional influence (Valencia, Málaga, Sevilla).
  • Subregional metropolises: 200,000 to 500,000 inhabitants, with provincial influence and specialized functions (Granada, Córdoba, Murcia).

Urban Agglomeration

Urban growth from an excessive core has led to the connection of other population nuclei. The types of urban agglomeration are:

• Metropolitan: a large urban extension around the first city, often with bedroom communities (the area around Madrid, Barcelona, etc.).
• Conurbation: a continuous urban area formed by two or more cities that have merged (from Málaga to Marbella).
• Regional urban: a discontinuous urban area with dispersed but very dense cities (Asturias).
• Megalopolis: a huge conurbation (from Barcelona to Murcia).