Consolidating the periphery: three residential complexes in Zaragoza by Grupo Z

Abstract

The rural exodus after the Spanish Civil War led to many irregular settlements on the outskirts of Spanish cities.These new neighbourhoods often lacked planning, infrastructure, public facilities and services and consisted of rural-like self-built housing, evoking the origins of the inhabitants. Later urban planning efforts often distorted the original character of these settlements by pursuing the model of commuter towns dominated by road infrastructure and large-scale residential slabs. With the transition to democracy, citizens, professionals and institutions experimented with new solutions for these peripheral settlements. In the early 1980s, Grupo Z was involved in such efforts, taking part on the interior reform of the La Paz district, building three adjacent residential complexes. Rather than embracing sweeping, universal solutions, such as those resulting from previous planning projects,the architects of Grupo Z, by designing these buildings, offered specific responses based on logic, applied to an urban context, to a particular socioeconomic reality and identity. These buildings were more respectful of the preexisting built environment and restored rural architectural values: used vernacular architectural resources such as façade fronts, courtyards, openings, roofs and materiality; interacted with the urban fabric through a fragmented volumetry; gave new life to the adjacent public space by spreading out the access points; and included very different types of housing to attract a diverse population and promote community identity with a wide variety of relational spaces. The purpose of this study is to analyse these three complexes in detail and to recognise the architectural values that have helped to consolidate the neighbourhood with respect for its original form and identity, in contrast to previous efforts that nearly transformed the peripheral district.