Temporal conflict of urban legislation

Abstract

Objective 

The architectural discipline is affected by a multitude of legislations. From the urban to the technical, different regulations influence the configuration of the city and the limits of what to build. The conflict is that they are enunciated mainly through space, placing the time factor as something residual. From disciplines such as sociology, geography or law, various researchers identify this circumstance as an impediment to improve buildings, cities or territories and adapting them to contemporary demands. This article tries to look critically at the spatial side of the law in order to raise a debate about its limitations and its possible evolution into a technological context that only diffuses its borders.

Methodology

The methodology consists of a critical and exhaustive reading of Spanish laws that affect the use and design of urban space, as well as its connection with the theoretical debate that is taking place in other fields.

Conclusions

The main consequence of the conflict is the strengthening of the public-private division, a legal and spatial separation that is imposed in building and urban legislations. This dichotomy conditions and limits the activity of architects and urban planners, but also of politicians, sociologists or economists and it represents one of the biggest problems faced by architectural design.

Originality

The critical analysis of legislations is a new field of study and practically unexplored in architecture. Making visible the role of the law on architecture can provide urban agents with new tools to intervene on it.