Aldo Rossi and the architecture of Spanish democratic transition in Seville

Abstract

In the second half of the 1970s, during the Spanish transition to democracy, a new generation of young architects in Seville reassessed the city in relation to Italian debates and their strong political drive. Concerned about the destruction of Seville’s historical centre by the Franco regime’s urban planning, these architects found in Aldo Rossi not only their main figure of reference, but also a powerful object of fascination. Moreover, Rossi’s presence in Seville between 1975 and 1978 had a fundamental influence on the early work of young Sevillian architects and the subsequent planning of the city under the first democratic administrations. However, a particular analysis of Rossi’s ideas in comparison to the works of that time in Seville showed how these young local architects did not always fully bring on board Rossi’s political position through their architectural projects. Rather, these architects’ reading of Rossi favoured figure over structure, visual aspects over relational ones, and ultimately had an important impact in the way the city’s historical centre developed in the 1980s and 1990s.