THE LINEAR CITY: A MODEL OF A SUSTAINABLE CITY?

The linear city was a proposal made by Arturio Soria at the end of the 19th century, to turn Madrid into a more human city , a city which was closer to nature.

Arturo Soria´s aim was to solve some of the problems that Madrid had at that time: transport, overpopulation and sanitary conditions.

There were two different theories to solve the problems caused by the industrial revolution:

• Naturistic theories: Arturo Soria wanted to integrate nature into the city. Thus, he decided to plant several rows of trees along the street. The houses would also have a garden and an orchard.

Hygienist theories:Their objective was to improve the sanitary conditions of the city. The proposals to achieve this were:- to plant trees near the houses- to buid wider streets - to build detached or semidetached houses so that the different families didn´t live so close to each other.

The most important objective was to combine nature and city.

THE PROJECT

• The final project was a linear city surrounded by nature, and with a central area for services.

The new houses

• The new houses were bigger and had a garden. There was also a vegetable garden or a space for working the land.

New houses for working people

Old houses

Objectives of the linear city

• -To create less populated suburbs

• -To preserve individualism

• -To make nature part of the city

• -To solve the problems of transport: Its main objective was to make the trips between the country and the city quicker.

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Parcelling out around a linear centre line of the main street

• Streets had to be 200 metre long and 20 metre wide, and the centre line of the street had to connect with the different blocks of houses , all of regular shapes :squares, rectangles or trapeziums

• The city should grow parallel to the main street.

Houses in the linear city

A middle- class house

The living roomThe bathroom

Indoor gardens the Hall

TYPES OF HOUSES

“ The dreadful monotony of yesterday has now been corrected “.( A joke about the project !)

Prototipos de casas de la ciudad lineal

Arturo Soria let the architects free to build different models of houses in order to avoid monotony.

Compañía Madrileña de Urbanización was the company in charge of the project

SERVICES

• The new city had a tram .

It also had space for vegetable gardens and for groceries

for leisure and for cultural and sport activities.

A school Colegio de Huérfanos de la Armada A theatre

CasinoSport facilities

THE PROJECT FAILS

• After the death of Arturo Soria, C.M.U. went through a period of economical crisis. Due to this, the original idea was changed.

• As time passed, the price of the ground increased and building became very expensive.

THE LINEAR CITY TODAY

The demographic boom of Madrid, the rise of prices and the proximity of the linear city to the city centre put an end to the project.

Today the only remains of the linear city are the central line of the main street and some middle-class houses.

The linear city ,built in thr northesat of Madrid

ARTURO SORIA

• Statue of Arturo Soria placed in Arturo Soria Street. There is also an underground station called The linear city: Ciudad Lineal.

Arturo Soria y Mata (Madrid, 1844 -1920 ) He was an architect and an engineer , especially well- kwnon by his idea of building a linear city.

He introduced the first tram in Madrid and also a suburban train

From 1886, he devoted his life to this project.