The post-Spanish Civil War period saw various moments (national self-sufficiency and isolation of the Franco regime; then, normalisation on an international level, entry into the UN, opening of embassies, economic developmentalism, etc.) which exerted a major influence on the urban development model."With the arrival of developmentalism early in the 1960s, there was considerable economic growth and great industrial development across Gipuzkoa which led to the arrival of thousands of workers who naturally needed housing. The result was that owing to the speculative way of resolving the problem, the city grew in an unstructured way devoid of infrastructure, etc."

Ponte's thesis devotes particular attention to the case of Errenteria, a locality in which he was the municipal architect for several years. "It is the most significant example, from a negative perspective, of course, of the type of urban planning at that time. There we have, for example, the suburb of Beraun (even though it has changed a lot, and for the better)," as the author of the thesis pointed out. "Errenteria was an industrial town like so many others in Gipuzkoa (Arrasate-Mondragon, Eibar, etc.) which all of a sudden almost underwent a radical transformation, exponential demographic growth. The reason? The policy of urban development which, as in the case of the Donostia-San Sebastian area, stipulated that the industrial estates and housing for the workers had to be built on the outskirts of the city (Usurbil, Hernani, Errenteria, etc.)", stressed Ponte.

Muguruza and Bidagor

Among the promoters of Gipuzkoan urban planning at the time stand out two architects from this province, Pedro Muguruza and Pedro Bidagor, who held high positions in the urban reconstruction bodies set up once the Spanish Civil War was over. "It was Bidagor who established the guidelines of urban development across Spain until well into the 1960s. The choice of Gipuzkoa was crucial and was used as a model for other projects elsewhere," asserted Ponte. "At that time the guidelines linked to the concept of 'Functional Town' as opposed to the so-called 'Expansion' (Ensanche) model were followed. They were very different concepts."

The thesis ends with the emergence of a new generation of professionals and a new process: the restoration of the town/city. "There was considerable citizen discontent caused by the destructuring in the previous period (1960-1975), a discontent that was expressed through various social movements and was accompanied by a new generation of architects who tackled the city/town issue from a different approach", recalled Enrique Ponte. "In my thesis I have always defended the position that urban planning is closely linked to the political situation. A city/town at the time of Francoist national self-sufficiency is not the same as in a period of developmentalism, or in the new period that began in 1975. There is a close relationship between the way of understanding the town/city and each historical process, according to the dominant ideology at each moment", ended the author.

Additional information

Enrique Ponte-Ordoqui (Donostia-San Sebastian, 1944) studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Barcelona. He was municipal architect (1985) and head of the Technical Office of the PGOU (Land Use Planning) of Errenteria (1999-2010), as well as director of Transport Infrastructure (1995-1999) and Head of Urban Planning (1992-1995) of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community (region). He has many papers published in specialised journals, has given courses and has been the editor of several publications. In 1993, he received the COAVN (Professional Association of Basque Architects) Award for Architecture, in the category of urban planning.