Social Housing in Spain II: from the End of the Spanish Civil War to the Creation of the Ministry of Housing in 1957

Introduction: The End of the War and the Reorganization of the State

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the new regime inherited the unresolved problem of the expanding urban suburbs, which compounded the enormous task of the reconstruction. Franco’s government began introducing legislation on housing the moment the Civil War ended, but in those early years, the different political families on the winning side were fighting to occupy political and social spaces, which resulted in an often redundant and inefficient organization. Through the architect Pedro Muguruza, the dominant faction, the Falange, promoted a vision of the city and housing that contrasted with the values the Modern Movement had begun to implement in the preceding decade. One of the focuses of their interest were working-class neighbourhoods; they were seen as problematic, fomenting class differences that might lead to the emergence of pockets of resistance against the regime. The political struggles translated into the creation of multiple organisms with overlapping powers in matters of housing, which ended up being ineffective and uncoordinated in their actions.

The General Directorate of Architecture: Pedro Muguruza and Social Housing under the Falange

The Falange spared no theoretical or informative efforts in defining what the Regime’s ‘new architecture’ should be. The aesthetic programme it promoted was clear and was based on the recovery of the ‘Empire’, the architectural quintessence of which is the Escorial Monastery. Housing had to be organized around the traditional family unit and, regarding the neighbourhoods, all the social classes were to be mixed, while avoiding multi-family blocks, associated with socialist principles. Several neighbourhoods in Madrid, like Cerro de Palomeras, reflect this ideology: a nostalgic and rural air, and homes with pens for livestock that mimic vernacular architecture, without any trace of modernity in the architectural language.

The General Directorate of Devastated Regions

During the early years of Franco’s regime, two General Directorates coexisted in the Ministry of the Interior’s organization chart: the aforementioned General Directorate of Architecture and the General Directorate of Devastated Regions. The aim of the latter was to reconstruct properties that had been damaged during the war. The actions of Devastated Regions began with the reconstruction of damaged buildings or infrastructures, in cases where this was possible. Where the destruction was too severe, temporary shelters were built for the homeless while permanent housing was being completed. Of all the neighbourhoods built by Devastated Regions, the one in Almería – called ‘Regiones Devastadas’ after the developing organization ─ is one of the best known, probably due to the eclecticism of its architecture, which gives it a picturesque and cinematographic character.

The National Housing Institute (NHI): Incentivizing the Private Development of Affordable Housing

In 1939 – just two weeks after the end of the Civil War – the National Housing Institute was created. The decree that created the Institute contained the first regulatory definition of ‘protected housing’ in Spain. Like the Ley Salmón under the Republican government, the legislation and scope of the NHI did not include the direct development of housing; it did, however, include the definition of living standards and the determination of the criteria for granting aid and benefits, as well as the designation of responsibility for inspections. Perhaps the purview of the NHI that had the most impact on the development of social housing in Spain was its ability to propose, by region, the types of housing that should serve as a model, determining their characteristics – depending on whether they were for farmers, artisans, etc. – and providing blueprints and models free of charge, although this offering was seldom used. In any case, nearly all the relevant achievements in social housing, most dating from the early 1950s, were able to benefit from some of its contributions.

The Obra Sindical del Hogar (Union Housing Department)

The Obra Sindical del Hogar was one of the institutions created during the Spanish Civil War and in the early years of Franco’s regime. A number of departments were established within the Union Organization, with the mission of pursuing ‘the moral and material elevation of workers’. The function of the OSH was to build housing, on land it had purchased or expropriated, for the members of the Trade Union Organization – in other words, for all workers. Through 1960, but above all in the 1950s, the OSH built some 140,000 homes, generally grouped into neighbourhoods. Two important features of these developments were that the OSH would be in responsible for the management, and the units could be purchased through an amortization model, will small monthly payments that included maintenance of the building and the neighbourhood. However, many of these developments began to show serious construction and structural problems even before the amortization period ended.

The 1950s: From Directed Settlements to the Creation of the Ministry of Housing (1957)

In the 1950s, there was an awareness of the true scope of the housing problem in large cities and an acceptance of the evidence that the initiatives from the previous decade had not addressed the problem in its entirety. In 1955, the decree establishing the National Plan for Limited Income Housing was passed, which, upon its implementation in Madrid, granted owners the right to construct their own low-rise housing, under the supervision of the City Council’s experts and the architects of the time. Thus, these new neighbourhoods became known as ‘Directed Settlements’ or ‘Absorption Settlements’. In some of them, such as Entrevías, a quick, simple and brilliant architectural response was derived from a careful analysis of the associated economic, administrative and time-based difficulties.

• In depth Social Housing in Spain II: from the End of the Spanish Civil War to the Creation of the Ministry of Housing in 1957