A Hermeneutic Reading of the Urban Landscape: Memory and Persistence in the Identity Construction of Bellas Vistas (Madrid)

Abstract

The greatest challenge of the city is the simultaneous character of all the information that it contains. The city landscape is the communication system between the observer and the urban environment. A hermeneutic approach, based on sensitive perceptions and connected with the course of history, can extract from urban landscapes their significant elements and recompose a narrative that makes them legible. For this article, our case study will be the area of Bellas Vistas, one of the peripheral neighborhoods that emerged beyond the limits of the “Ensanche de Madrid” in the 19th century. A methodology based on hermeneutics is proposed, with new interpretative approaches to a seemingly ordinary landscape that may reveal the social, patrimonial and identity values that lay beneath its physical layout. The article traces the development and urban evolution of Bellas Vistas as well as its social history, analyzing the persistence or urban space usages and studying the memory contained in its spatial structure. Finally, it is revealed how, beyond what is immediately perceived in the area, both usage patterns of urban space and its contained memory configure the identity of Bellas Vistas, allowing it to be identified and differentiated from other urban areas. Ultimately, this approach to ordinary urban areas, where everyday life takes place, provides a different perspective on the urban landscape and opens new paths for its assessment and conservation.