Greenspaces planning evolution in Madrid in the 20th century

Abstract

The present work is an investigation of what occurred in Madrid during the 20th century with respect to greenspace design and planning. The study begins with the city’s first urban plan, the “Plan de Ensanche”, drafted in 1857 by Carlos Maria de Castro. The plan which is currently in force is the “Plan General de Ordenacion Urbana de Madrid” of 1997. The present study analyzes the evolution in this period of the planning and design processes of public greenspaces in the Madrid Metropolitan Area. The regulation of the existence and creation of these spaces, their public accessibility, numbers and area, location, type, and function is reflected in a succession of documents throughout the 20th century under the general denomination of “Urban Plans”. These documents differ widely in the variety of topics they cover: planning objectives, treatment of achievements, the territorial scope of the plan’s applicability, etc. The resulting difficulties in performing a comparative study were initially resolved by applying two urban greenspace indices – quantity of greenspaces, and square metre of greenspace per inhabitant. These allowed the various plans to be compared and their evolution analyzed. Two of the conclusions drawn from the analyses were: (i) that the proposals of greatest greenspace area corresponded to the middle third of the century, not to the end of the century as might have been expected, but that it was precisely this period that saw the lowest rate of real greenspace creation; and (ii) the enormous influence that two historical Madrid greenspaces – the Casa del Campo, and the Monte de Pardo – had on the service indices throughout the century.