Escuela de Politécnica Superior

Durante el siglo XVI, la importancia de la conducción de aguas limpias hasta el centro de las ciudades españolas quedó patente por medio de la construcción de múltiples acueductos. El de San Antón en Plasencia es una de sus mejores muestras. Su erección optimizó, no sin dificultades, las acometidas de agua hasta la ciudad amurallada, mejorando, de este modo, las condiciones de confort y salubridad de sus habitantes. A principios del siglo XX, el acueducto perdió su funcionalidad y hoy goza de carácter monumental. El presente artículo analiza y estudia técnica y constructivamente el estado original de su arquería principal, por medio del levantamiento de planos de su estado actual y de su restitución gráfica. Con ello se persigue una mejor comprensión de su diseño, construcción y funcionalidad, como pieza maestra y representativa de la hidráulica en el renacimiento hispano.

The promotion or access to certain energy technologies has changed the humanized landscape throughout history; cities have been born around, and because of an energy source, or have been displaced in order for energy-related infrastructures to take their spot. However, and for any city from its very beginning, energy paradigm shifts have deeply altered their morphology. Not only extraction, but especially transformation and transport of resources materializes in artefacts, often controversial and soon-to-be obsolete. This is especially patent in the ever-changing city boundaries; the fringe of ‘proximity’, where the collision between the countryside and the urban mesh embodies the relations and contradictions between urban growth, energy demand and landscape protection. In a context of growing cities (both in terms of expansion of its artificial land and in terms of energy demand), we are facing two paths which not always converge: an inevitable low carbon transition and a growing sensitivity towards ordinary landscapes. This article, within the framework of the project ‘Proximity landscapes of the city of Madrid. From the 19thC to the present’, studies the development of the city of Madrid in relation to its energy access and management, in a series of key stages: mid-19thC (before the bourgeois enlargement plan approved in 1860), early 20thC (when the introduction of electricity powered a deep urban transformation and outlaying urban cores were annexed), mid-late 20thC (when a rural exodus took place and the peripheries of Madrid grew rapidly) and today.

The image that a city offers when approaching it, depending on its topographical situation, the drawing of its borders or its urban form, generates a perceptive construction, for both locals and tourists, with the potential to become an iconic image and therefore play a part in the collective imagery. The character and value of those landscapes is largely determined by their green spaces, preserved in most European cities for their ecological or historical significance. Being able to recognize the worthiness of these proximity visions, in the context of today’s growing cities, is of fundamental relevance in order to enhance the sense of place, amongst other community values. In this communication we study the above-mentioned aspects in the image of the city of Madrid, within the framework of the project ‘Proximity landscapes of the city of Madrid. From the 19thC to the present’ currently in process. Through a landscape analysis of a selection of iconographic representations of the surroundings of the city, we draw special attention to the presence of historical green spaces throughout time, and its relation with architectural landmarks in the progressive construction of an iconic image of the city. From here, we can deduce the relevance that these elements have in the generation of a recognizable character and the decisive role of protection mechanisms in order to preserve it.

A growing city adapts and transforms the pre-existing topography, and with its urban fabric defines an ever-changing contour throughout history; this contour is not a clear line, but rather a fringe, where city and countryside meet and create occupancy systems that are crucial to comprehend the evolution of the urban form. We can consider this fringe as ‘proximity’ landscapes: landscapes that are perceived when the city is either a destination or a point of departure. The vision from afar, or when progressively approaching the city, provides both locals and tourists with certain landscape and architectural aspects that should be studied, preserved and valued for their ability to generate meaningful spaces. In this communication we study the surrounding landscapes of Madrid by means of a Landscape Character Assessment, within the framework of the project ‘Proximity landscapes of the city of Madrid. From the 19thC to the present’ currently in process. Combining graphic analysis of historical cartography at a metropolitan scale with perceptive analysis techniques, special attention is drawn to certain axes and significant lookouts of the city, mapping them and evaluating their visual basins. This characterization leads to distinguishing three main landscape types surrounding Madrid, according to physical, natural and anthropogenic structures: one predominantly natural, one mainly industrial and service-related, and a third one with special historical relevance.

Para que la visión del paisaje de una ciudad esté completa, es necesario estudiar su imagen desde el territorio que la rodea. Aproximarse a una ciudad desde diversos puntos ofrece visiones muy diferentes, las cuales, para el caso de estudio que se plantea, Madrid, presentan marcados y diferentes caracteres. Dentro de estos tipos de paisaje, se plantea identificar ciertos ámbitos que actúan como “umbral urbano” y sirven de nexo de unión entre lo que no es ciudad y lo que sí. Son espacios que recogen el legado histórico de elementos patrimoniales a la par que se conjugan con nuevos hitos y recientes intervenciones, pero todos ellos nos hacen reconocer que entramos en la ciudad de Madrid. Por su situación topográfica, accesos y características morfológicas, hace que su visión lejana tenga un gran interés cultural, turístico y paisajístico. Además, por el reciente espectacular crecimiento de su periferia y la alta densidad de población en la misma, supone un caso paradigmático de paisaje periurbano a nivel europeo, que necesita de estudio y reflexión. Se pretende analizar, a través de algunos ejemplos, el espacio periurbano de Madrid integrando valores naturales y culturales, para determinar el papel que los ejes principales de acceso, los hitos arquitectónicos y las infraestructuras verdes juegan en la definición de los umbrales de la ciudad, en esos espacios de contacto entre lo periurbano y lo urbano.