Santa María Micaela and Park Hill: Ethics and aesthetics in parallel

Abstract

Santa María Micaela (Valencia, 1958-61), the work of the architect Santiago Artal, is a singular fact within the Spanish architecture panorama of the fifties, since it is one of the first examples of the incorporation of modernity approaches in the architecture of collective housing and, at the same time, participates in some of the revisionist proposals carried out by the young architects who are beginning to be critical of the Athens Charter. In those moments, Spain is living a situation of isolation from the European reality, where the most outstanding works of residential architecture are being carried out in Great Britain, associated, in part, with the construction of new cities to decongest London. Within a humanist environment, architects try to find models closer to local cultures, giving primacy to circulations and spaces of coexistence. In particular, it is especially interesting, for its confrontation with Santa María Micaela, the concrete case of Park Hill (Sheffield, 1953-60), by the architects Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith. Our objective will be to carry out a comparative analysis of these two works, with the purpose of locating the Artal dwellings within the european cultural and architectural context of those years.