La obra residencial de Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López y Javier Subías desde el Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós : Barcelona, 1959-1970
Authors:   , Aguirre Bermeo Fernanda M. 
Published: October 2023

The research is focused on modern collective housing projects whose forms of implantation stand out in the relationship with the urban context that precedes them. In the specific case of Barcelona, the task confronts the Cerdà block layout with the design strategy developed by the team of architects Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López Íñigo and Javier Subías between 1959 and 1970. The focus point takes place on the Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós (1959).
It compiles and edits varied graphic documentation on the peripheries and architecture of the residential complexes designed by the Giráldez-López-Subías team, with the aim of establishing relationships and conjectures. Project and city, Ensanche and periphery, buildings and plots, housing and collective space, are subjects that show the significance of an urban landscape built in a relatively short period of time, often yielded to economic constraints and the late process of urban infrastructure. It appeals, by one hand, to the revision of the documents of the projects held in the Historical Archive of the Col-legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC) together with the exhaustive and valuable material of the archive of the Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (IMHAB). By other hand, it presents a selection of photographs and maps recovered from various local archives, which, when contrasted with
current graphic documents, organize an original story.
The selection of photographs corroborates the narrative of the consolidation process and the current situation of the projects under study. At the same time they represent the collective memory that has built the image of the city: the collective imaginary. As such, “the perception of the city, which is not continuous but rather partial, fragmentary” (Lynch, 1984: 10), tends to eliminate in a subjective but conscious way what is irrelevant to it. The collective imaginary around the periphery and the massive housing projects has neglected important details that diverted attention from the quality of the architectural background and the formation of the urban landscape. In this way, an imaginary is not definitive if a new look is projected to reconstruct these past scenarios in order to put them in their current state and to observe the circumstances that have defined their fate.
Amidst the symbolic force of traditional Barcelona represented by the Cerdà Plan, the Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós is designed as a housing system in accordance with the new needs of the modern city and at the same time is adapted to a prevailing layout. In derivation, it is analysed the residential work of the same team carried out as housing complexes: Conjunto Avenida Diagonal (1963), Conjunto en la calle Guipúzcoa (1964) and Conjunto en Avenida Gran Vía (1966). This shows that despite the fact that the projects undertaken respond to different social and economic situations, they reveal the notion of modern urban space and the intense development of collective space. They also coincide in having been located in what at that time was called the periphery, the place where the Cerdà layout had no action or was undefined due to the absence of buildings. The study of the projects as contrasted with the Cerdà block makes it possible to compare the urban fabric and the architectural project; the first, around the dialogue of infrastructure, green space, services and housing; the second, as the concrete reality that gives way to the collective experience.
The study approaches the periphery from an historical perspective in order to highlight the process of urban consolidation. The Levante of Barcelona, for example, was a sector of late consolidation where the geometry of the Cerdà layout was transformed into a present but diffuse layer. At the time of populating the Levante, several reflections had already been made about the rigidity and lack of capacity of the Cerdà block to absorb the housing crisis. In 1953 the Regional Plan and the creation of the Partial Plans take place. Although the Plano Cerdà (1859) constituted the refoundation of Barcelona (Armesto, 1982: 94), the multiple Partial Plans developed since 1956 were actions in order to “refound” - in the manner of pieces - the depopulated peripheral territories.
The initial authors of the Plan Parcial del Poblado Sud-Oeste del Besós were Pedro López, Javier Subías, José Puig Torné and Enrique Giralt Ortet, from the Patronato Municipal de la Vivienda. They formulated a housing system with the collective space as a protagonist, in order to organize through it the dwelling and the common buildings. This Plan set important guidelines for implementation, subdivision, heights and uses and guided several teams of architects to develop architectural designs. Pedro López, Javier Subías and Guillermo Giráldez were one of the teams that stood out in that task and which was also the first to design and build at the Polígono. In spite of being known only by a portion of the Polígono, it has been verified that they also designed the commercial pavilions, a civic center and other complementary services. It is true that the episode of massive housing, together with the lack of attention to social problems, triggered a series of regrettable events. However, it is possible to rescue effective facts that shaped the urban landscape and with it, to overcome the negative stigma on the periphery still present since its first appearance. To our days it is verified that, among the immense group of polygons of housing, the Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós has greatly contributed to the collective space and to the configuration of a vivid urban landscape.
In the subsequent work of the team, designed as residential complexes, the strategy is repeated. Supported by the public professional practice that Pedro López carried out at the Planning Department of the Town Hall, the team managed to draw up the proposals for the respective Partial Plans and Building Regulations and then adjust them in their private office that had been operating since 1956. The architectural-urban approach favoured habitability and collective space over the mere construction of houses. It is evident how the team faces the task of reconciling urban and architectural scale, composing a system of visual, formal and constructive relations, even knowing that, except for the project for Avenida Diagonal, economic constraints were an important conditioning factor for its construction. Although the dwelling has contained a program of minimum dimensions, it had to ensure spatial well-being. In this aspect, the correct resolution of the floor architectural plan, articulating spaces and separating others, steers towards the design of the built-in furniture and the facade elements,
all of them in harmony of composition and in modular rigor
La investigación se ocupa de proyectos modernos de vivienda colectiva cuyas formas de implantación sobresalen en la relación con el contexto urbano que le precede. En el caso específico de Barcelona, el ejercicio confronta el trazado de manzanas Cerdà con la estrategia proyectual desarrollada por el equipo de arquitectos Guillermo Giráldez, Pedro López Íñigo y Javier Subías entre 1959 y 1970. Como punto de partida, el trabajo toma al Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós (1959). Hace una compilación y edición de variada documentación gráfica en torno a las periferias y la arquitectura de los conjuntos residenciales realizados por el equipo Giráldez-López-Subías, con el fin de construir relaciones y conjeturas. Proyecto y ciudad, Ensanche y periferia, edificios y parcelas, vivienda y espacio colectivo, son tópicos que muestran la significación de un paisaje urbano construido en un periodo relativamente corto, doblegado muchas veces ante la estrechez económica y al tan tardío proceso de construcción de infraestructura urbana. Recurre a la revisión de los documentos de los proyectos salvaguardados en el Archivo Histórico del Col?legi d?Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC) junto al exhaustivo y valioso material del archivo del l?Institut Municipal de l?Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (IMHAB). A más, presenta una selección de fotografías y mapas rescatados de varios archivos locales, que al contraponerse con los documentos gráficos actuales, organizan un relato inédito. La selección de fotografías corrobora al relato del proceso de consolidación y a la situación actual de los proyectos en estudio. En medio de la fuerza simbólica de la Barcelona tradicional representada por el Plan Cerdà, el Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós se resuelve como un sistema de habitación de acuerdo a las nuevas necesidades de la ciudad moderna y al mismo tiempo se adapta a un trazado imperante. En derivación se analiza la obra residencial del mismo equipo resuelta como conjuntos habitacionales: Conjunto en la Rambla Guipúzcoa (1964-1965) Conjunto en Avenida Diagonal (1965-1967, 1973), y Conjunto en Avenida Gran Vía (1967-1969). Con ello se evidencia que a pesar de que los proyectos abordados responden a distintas situaciones sociales y económicas, revelan la noción de espacio urbano moderno y el desarrollo intenso del espacio colectivo. Coinciden además en haber sido emplazados en lo que en aquella época se denominaba periferia, aquel lugar donde la traza Cerdà no tenía acción o se mostraba indefinida por causa de la ausencia de edificación. De esta forma, el estudio aborda a la periferia desde una perspectiva histórica para poner en relieve el proceso de consolidación urbana. El estudio del Polígono del Sud-Oeste del Besós en contraposición con la manzana Cerdà posibilita entonces, la comparación entre tejido urbano y proyecto arquitectónico; el primero, en torno al diálogo de infraestructura, espacio verde, servicios y vivienda; el segundo, como la realidad concreta que da paso a la experiencia colectiva. Se verifica que en la obra posterior al Polígono, resuelta como conjuntos residenciales, la estrategia empleada se repite. Apoyados en el ejercicio profesional público que Pedro López desempeñaba en el Departamento de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento, el equipo Giráldez-López-Subías logra esbozar las propuestas para los Planes Parciales y Ordenaciones respectivas para luego afinarlas en el despacho privado que desde 1956 mantenían operativo. El planteamiento arquitectónico-urbano apostaba por la habitabilidad y el espacio colectivo por sobre la mera construcción de viviendas. En este aspecto, la correcta resolución de la planta articulando espacios y separando otros deriva hacia el diseño de los mobiliarios empotrados y los elementos de fachada, todos ellos en armonía de composición y en rigor modular