The Automobile and the Architecture of its Infrastructure in the City of Albacete

Abstract

The development and expansion of the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century gave rise to the appearance of new infrastructures such as service stations, garages, car washes, etc. These spaces, with their specific needs programs, were a reflection of modernity and the purchasing power of the new bourgeoisie in the big cities and were designed by the great architects of eclecticism and modernism of the time. The aim of this work is to analyze and describe the development of the main spaces related to the automobile during the early 20th century in the city of Albacete, showing its functional characteristics, distribution, and its architecture. For the development of the work, the urban, social and economic framework of the time has been analyzed through monographs and data from the Albacete Provincial Historical Archive. For the analysis of the infrastructures, the files for the license to build buildings and infrastructures of the Albacete Municipal Historical Archive have been analyzed. This study allows knowing under the prism of the automobile the history of the infrastructures of the first third of the 20th century in the city of Albacete. Unlike what happened in large cities like Madrid, Barcelona, or Valencia, the introduction and development of the automobile in the city of Albacete were slower, and the characteristics of the city influenced the development of individual and small garages, mainly for the care and custody of vehicles.