Critical distances, contemporary residential growth in Spanish medium cities

Abstract

Objective The research summarized in this paper aims to illustrate how the role of public spaces (green areas and roads) in residential expansion projects is limited to three issues: to their very presence, in terms of the quantity and level of urbanization; to a theoretical structuring function, associated with the hierarchy of spaces, and the delimitation of new domains (community spaces) between public and private. Methodology To do this, a comparative analysis of some cases of residential expansion built between 1980 and 2010 has been conducted. Through analysing the rhythms (image sequences) and distances (dimensioning) that define public spaces and their relationships with communitarian and private spaces (ground levels of surrounding buildings), this study aims to show how the public spaces of the residential expansions built in Spain in the last 40 years are repeating distances, which turn out to be key, with the pre-existing city and within the urban fabric itself. Conclusions The lack of contiguity between them and the limited diversity and heterogeneity in their use cause a lack of urbanity and diversity in activities in the new residential fabric. The result is fragmented residential spaces in which urban material is scattered, losing cohesion and urban strength, areas with high maintenance costs and low capacity for generating urban activity, which makes these areas inefficient and consequently unsustainable. Originality This work focuses on aspects that are not strictly technical, but those that are important for urbanity, such as the distances between the elements, the contiguity or the diversity and mixture of activities.