SUSTAINABLE CITIES: GREEN AREAS

ANALYSIS OF AN URBAN PLAN; MADRID

                            

A city is a set of street and buildings governed by a town hall and whose dense and numerous population is usually dedicated to non-agricultural activities and, in an other hand, from the point of view of the study of landscapes, a city is an urban landscape in which anthropic elements predominate. In my case, I am going to analyse Madrid city.


Madrid is an autonomous community of Spain, and also its capital. This city is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, in Central plateau and border with the provinces of Guadalajara, Cuenca, Castilla la Mancha and Castilla y León. With a population of 6.507.184 inhabitants, Madrid is the third most populated city of our country in which most of its inhabitants lives in its metropolitan area.


If we date back to its origins, we can stand that it was a city built by Muslims in the IX century. They built it near Toledo`s border, which was a strategic geographical point. As a consequence, the primitive location of the Alcazar is situated i a plot that they named as Mayrit, over a cliff on the terraces of Manzanares river, in which nowadays we can find the Real Palace and the cathedral of Almudena. In 932, Ramiro II occup it and later, Alfonso XV included the city among Al-Andalus territories. Madrid village grew as a consequence of the repopulation laws, as the Fuero concession, in 1202, but Madrid would not be important until 1561.


The historical centre of this city, which has a muslim origin, is locate in those group of areas: the elevated river zones, in the cliff of the street of Segovia, the alcazaba, in the north, and the mozarad and jewish neighbourhoods, in the south. In XVII century, the urban center spread to the southern part of the territory, through the voulevars and to the east until the Castellana stream. The city urban expansion was always to the east, because of the river slopes that made building a very difficult task. In XIX the historical center start undergoing changes, like the opening of Gran Vía street.


The actual urban suburbs match with the “Almendra central” defined by N-30 road that belong to an ancient area restructurated after the Civil War. Constructors took advantage of the ancient farming floor to built new residential areas such us orcasitas and new neighbourhoods.


The urban layout of a city is a series of geometrical forms that is a result of different stages of growth and urbanisation. Cities are normally divided into a historic centre, the expansion zone and the outskirts.


In the first place, we are going to talk about the historical center of Madrid in which the short streets that form it are narrow and winding, and have a close and compact structure, with the exception of the ones that join the Real palace with la Puerta del Sol, where the pattern is irregular. The historical center has a radial form pattern that give protagonism to the main streets like Paseo del Prado and even el Retiro. With the industrialization, population increased and, as a consequence, streets expanded. The historical center usage is commercial, and traffic is forbidden to traffic.


Secondly, and talking about the expansion zone, we can observe an orthogonal layout, with wide straight streets that cross each other perpendicularly forming square blocks, although there are some irregular ones. The expansion zone functions are mainly residential, and cars are allowed to circulate.


Finally we are going to talk about outskirts. The urban growing caused that the closer villages get involved in the city, like if they were new neighbourhoods, forming a conurabation. These zones are also mainly residential, with close streets. In the south, industrial areas appear, and in the north, industrial and business parks. Madrid's outskirts are very good communicated, because they have train stations and bus services, and there are also lots of schools and hospitals and shopping centers for the suburban population.