Landscape architecture in Spain
It is difficult to summarise the landscape design
tradition in Spain, although everyone might agree
that a new approach or ‘tradition’ in public space
design started in the democratic municipalities in
the early 1980s. During four decades of grey Franco
dictatorship, open public space had been comple-
tely neglected. With the advent of freedom, street
events, such as concerts, markets and street para-
des, emerged instinctively. It became obvious that
recovering public open space, as the ultimate space
for coexistence and democracy, was an important
issue. ‘The city is only the public space, the rest
is houses and private condominiums, wrote Oriol
Bohigas, the head of Barcelona’s planning depart-
ment.In this social context, a new approach to
urban planning and public open space design star-
ted. Squares, parks, ‘rambles’ and gardens were
created or renovated in every town quarter. The
hope was that this public intervention would unlock
the regeneration of the surrounding urban fabric by
private investors. It worked.
With very little landscape design background at
all, the architects of the 1980s had been trained
mostly to make residential housing schemes, and
approached this new sort of ‘open space’ assign-
ment rather in the manner of interior designers.
The combination of political will and general enthu-
siasm, in the face of a daunting amount of work to
be done, seeded the ground for a new vocabulary
of open space design. As in designing a house, the
definition of limits, study of materials and a special
concern for detailing at the small scale, emerged as
priorities. Eventually new principles – clear modern
forms, design through abstract concepts instead of
lyrical references, attention to details and innova-
tion in materials, care in the choice of furniture and
lighting, as well as a little understanding of plants
and soft works as a design tool – created a new
movement that quickly gained followers.Design has slowly evolved; gradually agronomists,
biologists and landscape architects have joined the
architects in the task of designing open space and
more complex and interesting schemes are now
emerging. Those responsible for smaller towns,
peripheries, villages, and finally for natural and rural
areas have also incorporated landscape design in
their agendas and there is a growing number of
projects emerging in these locations.There are many examples of this newly born tradi-
tion all over the country; some have passed the ‘10
years test’, while others have proved to be mere
drawing-board exercises. Although open space is
now clearly understood to be an essential part of
our cities, and there exists a growing sensitivity for
landscape matters, landscape planning, especially
at the regional scale, is an almost unexplored fieldSpain
Marti Franch