Magda Anglès
Sinuous curves evoke cliffs and waves along a complex sequence of spaces. The undulating white walls are dramatically illuminated during the night.
Benidorm, Spain
Playa de Poniente Esplanade Organic shapes and a colourful tile tapestry create a cheerful beach promenade in the Spanish coastal town. The new public space with iconic potential helps to stimulate tourism.
ea, sex and sun”, Serge Gainsbourg’s song could be the official soundtrack of Benidorm. Blessed with benevolent Mediterranean weather, this hedonistic town sits in a magnificent bay on the Valencian coast, with an identifiable skyline of many high-rises that seem to stand as custodians of the 24-hour party city. In the words of the sociologist José Miguel Iribas, Benidorm is an affordable paradise, a mass marketing product that offers a Dionysian feast to the Northern European lower social classes. Recently, the underrated promenade on the western beach of Benidorm has been utterly transformed by the Office of Architecture in Barcelona. The practice, led by Carlos Ferrater and Xavier Martí Galí, has designed a cheerful and optimistic esplanade with organic shapes and a colourful tile tapestry. Sinuosity, evoking cliffs and waves, has resulted in an inspiring and complex space. The new promenade consists of a succession of undulating walls which ease the transition from built environment to hot sand. With multiple access points to the beach and intertwined paths, it is an optimistic celebration of the landscape and the city. Benidorm, as we know it today, was invented by its mayor Pedro Zaragoza, a stout Falangist with a thin moustache who managed to stay in office for 17 years. Of course, the lack of democratic elections helped, but his insistence on transforming the small fishing town into a prosperous city was fundamental to keeping him in the city council. Between 1950 and 1967 Benidorm overcame the unfavourable post-war financial situation and turned into a profitable business: it now ranks third in Europe, after London and Paris, in numbers of hotel beds. Zaragoza intentionally linked the economic growth of the city to its methodical urban development. In 1956, he set up Spain’s first General Plan for Urban Organisation, which promoted skyscrapers – choosing high density instead of urban sprawl – guaranteed “a room with a view” for every tourist and defined Benidorm’s main features and greatest hits. As a result, the city grew efficiently and in an orderly fashion, adapting itself to the emerging model of mass tourism. For those who see tourism and coastalisation only as destructive forces, choosing between extensive or intensive occupation of the territory is the same as asking by which vehicle one would prefer to be run over in an accident, by a caterpillar or a van. Still, it does make a difference. Unfortunately, Spain’s coast has been blessed with both extensive
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