Julio Cano Lasso’s Madrid. From utopia to reality

Abstract

In his book The city and its landscape, Julio Cano collected his reflections on the historical city. In this book, which the author defines as far from urbanism, several Spanish cities are studied, through texts and numerous drawings. It is stricking the importance given to the city of Madrid in two ways: its relationship with the surrounding landscape through its urban facade overturned on the Manzanares River, and its interior landscape, exemplified by the urban scene formed by the Gran Vía and Alcalá streets. The book analyzes the historical and current status of these urban ensembles of Madrid and also suggests possible lines of action in them. These proposals, such as the Linear Park of Manzanares River or the Ministry of Marine extending, are very similar to urban projects actually built in the city some years later, as Madrid Río and the Bank of Spain expansion of Rafael Moneo. In this research we analize the convergences and divergences, both methodological and morphological, between Julio Cano’s theoretical proposals and those real projects. It aims to focus on Julio Cano Lasso’s urban approaches and his consideration of the city as the most important of human creations.