PROGRAMA DE DOCTORADO:“PATRIMONIO ARQUITECTÓNICO: HISTORIA, COMPOSICIÓN Y ESTUDIOS GRÁFICOS”
















RESUMEN DE TESIS DOCTORAL
EN IDIOMA INGLÉS


EL DIBUJO DE ARQUITECTURA EN LA FORMACIÓN DE LA CIUDAD DE ALICANTE: FONDO DOCUMENTAL DEL ARCHIVO MUNICIPAL
(1691-1860)










Autor:
JORGE DOMINGO GRESA

Directores de tesis:
DRA. CONCEPCIÓN LÓPEZ GONZÁLEZ
Catedrática de Escuela Universitaria de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
DR. GASPAR JAÉN I URBAN
Catedrático de Escuela Universitaria de la Universidad de Alicante







DEPARTAMENTO DE EXPRESIÓN GRÁFICA ARQUITECTÓNICA. UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE VALENCIA

SUMMARY IN ENGLISH


The doctoral dissertation entitled “ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY OF ALICANTE: DOCUMENTARY RECORDS OF THE LOCAL ARCHIVES (1691-1860)”studies the 1,025 oldest architectural plans kept at the Local Archives of the city of Alicante (Archivo Municipal de Alicante, AMA). The geographical area considered is the municipality of Alicante in its present boundaries, not including the island of Tabarca. The time span is delimited by the 1691-1690 period: the starting year is a logical choice, given the destruction of the archive and its contents in 1691, whereas the final date is due to a number of reasons: one not related to graphics, two to graphics, and one of an academic and professional nature. The reason not related to graphics is the demolition of the city walls in 1860, which opened the gates to the modern city. The first reason related to graphics was that in 1890 the city council made it mandatory to include the plan view within the graphic documents which had to be submitted for building permit applications. The second reason is the appearance in May 1856 of the first plan drawn on “canvas paper”, by the architect José Fuentes. The use of transparent canvas paper became widespread in 1860, with a sizeable number of plans on this material; this was partly motivated by the need to maximize the draughtman´s work when making various copies, as required by the city council for the building permit application. This apparently unimportant factor will have a decisive impact upon the change in the graphic style of the drawings. Finally, there is another factor, of an academic and professional nature: the full-fledged status of the Madrid Architecture School, which became independent from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1857. This was after the passing of the Moyano Act, which marks the end of the so-called academic cycle.
    
    The research method used strictly conforms to the definition of “research” by the Spanish Real Academia dictionary, i.e. “the carrying out of intellectual and experimental activities in a systematic way in order to increase the knowledge on a given subject. For such purpose, the work procedure has been the following:
    
(A)	Digitization of 1,025 plans. Scanning was carried out as colour TIFF files with a 300 ppi resolution. This ensures the possibility of future high-quality reproduction in any type of printed professional edition. The integrity of all documents has been respected, including the whole of the original surface, with full edges. 
(B)	Analysis of each of the plans towards the obtention of 24 characteristics, including 11 exclusively graphic ones, which have all been collected into an individual datasheet.
(C)	On the basis of the previous work, creation of a triple graphic catalogue containing each of the document series: Urban Police, Private Construction, Single Numbering.
(D)	Detailed analysis of the documents selected. In such analysis the same emphasis is made on purely graphic issues (the graphic support) and content (the information in each document).
(E)	General and specific conclusions from all the materials studied.

    The documents are those contained in the archive sections labelled Urban Police and Private Construction, and also other items from the so-called historical Urban Planning archive. The latter not belonging to any of the previous sections, they are only identified through a number code. For the sole purposes of our work, these have been included into a new document set “created” here, entitled “Single Numbering. Throughout our presentation, each document is identified through the “official” name deriving from the above reasons and/or through a sequential number (N). Such number is exclusively used in our research, and is allocated individually according to order of appearance in our work.
    The documents selected for detailed analysis (section D) are all the items, with the exception of two perfectly homogeneous, identifiable groups, which may be therefore analyzed separately in the future. These are formed, respectively, by the plans for the city hall building plans, and those for the 18th-century fountains. In terms of figures, the plans included in the detailed study for this dissertation are 941 out of 1025, that is, 92 % of the total.
    
    The study carried out has been structured by dividing the materials into two major categories, to wit: URBAN PLANNING and BUILDINGS. In turn, these categories have been divided into the following chapters and subchapters:
    
    URBAN PLANNING
           
Geometrical or Alignment maps.
* General urban map
* Area planning map from the 18th century
* Area planning map from the 19th century
* General Geometrical Map of Alicante of 1849

    BUILDINGS
           
Public and private buildings. Elevation drawings.
* Public buildings. 1821 Ecclesiastical confiscations. José Cascant
* Private buildings

Public buildings. Project drawings: renovation and new build.
* Public Buildings. Renovation
* Public Buildings. New build

Private buildings. Project drawings: reforma y nueva planta.
* Early generations
* Intermediate generation
* End of academic cycle

    In a panoramic doctoral dissertation such as this, where over one thousand different documents are analyzed, the idea of “relating” has been the ever-present principle. Throughout our presentation, the unmistakable purpose has been to find possible connections between so many different elements.
    
    In URBAN PLANNING, within each subchapter, the documents have been classified by means of a double criterion: the geographical one (joint analysis of the items belonging to the same urban environment) and the author. This type of classification has allowed us a global, diachronic view of the urban evolution of the most important areas in the municipality, for instance, “Barranquet” Street (nowadays Bailén Street) or the various stretches of the “moat” which constrained the growth of the city, and many other urban areas. This gives further meaning to the title of our dissertation, which mentions “the development of the city of Alicante. For its part, the author classification has made it possible to compare the graphic production of different urban actors, with the ensuing assessment of the specific importance of each of them in the urban development of the city. It is worth mentioning the case of the architect Emilio Jover, a key figure in Alicantinian architecture in the 19th century, for whom there is a monographic section with conclusions in this first part of this dissertation.
    The additional study of the famous General Geometrical Map of Alicante of 1849 by Emilio Jover, now disappeared, has been possible through a digital reconstruction, obtained (as part of the research for our dissertation) from an old copy outside the Local Alicante Archive, an unused copy which was almost illegible. The first purpose to which such reconstruction has been put has been relating it to the various area geometric plans (made after the general one), through a compared study based on superimposing documents; the purpose was to assess the degree of compliance with the General Plan. This comparison has provided conclusive confirmation of the findings that had previously been made from the study of individual area maps: the lack of rigour was the rule, which allowed for wide interpretation, postponed until the final action of boundary definition.
    
    Within BUILDINGS, the way of classifying plans has changed depending on the three major categories, to wit: elevation drawings for public and private buildings, project drawings for public buildings and project drawings for private buildings.
    Elevation drawings, in practice, only include public buildings, and more specifically, the plans drawn by the council architect José Cascant on the occasion of the confiscation of church properties in 1821. Obviously, it has not been necessary to apply any classification to the documents, and they have been analyzed as a homogeneous group, although an effort has been made to study all possible connections with other documents from the Local Archive and from other locations. In this respect, it has been very important to combine the study of the Convent of the Blood Sisters to some other earlier geographical plan by master Vicente Mingot. Finally, this type of combined study has been basic for the understanding of the elevation of the Saint John of God Hospital, thanks to a later urban planning plan by Emilio Jover, drawn after the building had been demolished.
    Project drawings for public buildings have been studied by classifying or relating the plans by topic and then making a chronological study. This method has led to clear and specific conclusions on the diachronic operation of buildings such as the military hospital or the quay market, identifying and dating the successive work carried out in them. Also regarding the connections between the various items in the Local Archive, mention must be made, within this drawings category, of the quay, with the identification and date of the successive reforms carried out thereon. Also regarding the connections between the various items in the Municipal Archive, mention must be made within this drawings category of the fundamental external contribution of the General Geometrical Plan of 1849. This gives a physical context making it possible to understand Jorge Porrúa´s 1860 reform project for the Capuchin nuns’Convent.
    Project drawings for private buildings have been analyzed by classifying plans according to author and chronology. In these documents, a diachonic study was essential to measure the evolution of graphic issues. For its part, the author study (which becomes possible after previous digitalization of the materials and the possibility to view them together) has allowed us an unusual view, impossible to obtain “physically” or materially at the Local Archive, since they are classified by geographical criteria (according to streets). This procedure has enabled us to carry out a complete analysis of the graphic work of each author, which in turn has led to separate conclusions; these are then contrasted with each other through the abovementioned chronological criterion. At first, one might have expected an easy and obvious association between these and the geometrical plans, since these were made in order to define the boundaries. However, this has not always been the case, since this direct relationship has been established in only nine of the forty-one geometrical plans from the 19th century.
    It has been possible to discover an enormous degree of complementariness between the set of graphic materials in the Alicante Local Archive and the historiography of Alicante, as may be seen from the joint analysis of the Cascant plans and the perspectives by the chronicler Viravens, which has confirmed the great descriptive reliability of both of them. The same conclusion may be obtained after comparing those perspectives with Lorenzo Chapuli´s military hospital plans, and above all, with those made by Jorge Porrúa for the Capuchin nuns’convent. 

    Throughout this dissertation there are various sets of specific conclusions on each of the abovementioned sections. Also, chapter 6, devoted to project drawings for private buildings, includes specific conclusions on the graphic production of each of the authors.  The analysis and exposition stage ends with a set of final conclusions which, given the different nature of the documents, has been structured into two large groups: URBAN PLANNING and BUILDINGS, followed by GENERAL CONCLUSIONS, aimed at connecting all the sections. Within each of the three set of conclusions thus obtained there are subdivisions aimed at facilitating presentation and understanding: therefore, a distinction is made between graphic and extra-graphic conclusions. These are preceded by the so-called “contextual” conclusions, intended to define and justify a number of premises affecting each set. As regard extra-graphic conclusions, it must be emphasized that, thanks to their content or message, both urban planning and building plans are real “recoverers” of the collective historical memory of the city. Indeed, they provide, either implicitly or explicitly, priceless information on the physical, typological and compositional characteristics of antique buildings and urban environment (tangible aspects), but also on the traditions, sociology, economy, culture, etc. of the city (intangible aspects). Concerning the graphic conclusions, there are two basic information areas: one, the purely and strictly graphic one, and two, issues related to description and codification.
    In order to illustrate the above, the general conclusions of a graphic nature are partially reproduced here: 
    
(A) The MEDIUM is thin or thick laid paper in the 18th century and early 19th century, both in urban planning and in buildings. From such period, there appears to be a great variety, and no particular type seems to prevail. A case worth mentioning is sulphurized paper, used in only one urban planning project. An important occurrence in building drawings is that of tracing cloth, which was first used by the architect José Fuentes in 1856, and progressively became the norm for the remainder of the 19th century and early 20th century.
(B) FRAMING is only used in 25% of the 19th century urban planning drawings. All those made by the council architect José Cascant have a frame, which applies to both urban planning and elevation drawings. In project drawings it is only used in very exceptional cases, such as the project for the renovation of the Capuchin nuns Convent, by Jorge Porrúa.
(C) The REPRESENTATION SYSTEM is always the dihedral one.
(D) As regards the GRAPHIC TECHNIQUE, the 18th century plans are wash drawings, in all their varieties. In the 19th century such technique continues to be the absolute norm in urban planning, whereas in buildings there is an early move towards monochrome wash drawing, which is later replaced by quill- or drawing pen-based techniques, leading to predominantly linear drawings. 
(E) The ELEMENTARY VISUAL VARIABLES —point, line and stain— are commonly used. Stains have a great variety of applications in buildings, whereas in urban planning they play a major role when filling in blocks of houses.
(F) Regarding GRAPHIC VARIABLES, figure and colour are commonly used in both categories, whereas shading, unlike in buildings, is scarcely found in urban planning. Moreover, its purpose is an unusual one, since it is applied to attach a greater value to some of the sides of the blocks of houses, in the shape of a linear shade, as an expressive device.
(G) The MEASUREMENT UNIT is the Valencian yard in urban planning, and the Valencian palm in buildings, until they were replaced by meters in 1856.
(H) The urban planning SCALE is always expressed graphically, with no kind of normalization. In buildings graphic scales also prevail, even after the metric system was adopted. However, after its adoption, the scales are wholly normalized, and all private building projects include general 1/100 ground and elevation views, and 1/10 partial detailed views.
(I) ALPHANUMERIC INSCRIPTIONS are characterized in the 18th century by the usual presence of “legends”, both in buildings and in urban planning. Such “legends” gradually disappear during the 19th century, replaced by abundant signs of various types. The North is never represented, even in urban planning.
(J) No graphic mention of ABSOLUTE DIMENSIONS is made.
(K) There is a variety in COLOUR CODES used to distinguish previously existing ítems from those projected, although the prevailing one is carmine. In urban planning, carmine is used for existing blocks and yellow for those projected. On the contrary, in buildings carmine is commonly used (not always in the 18th century) to represent the projected renovation work.

    Finally, it must be pointed out that the knowledge of the graphic work of all the masters and architects has led to the attribution of a known author to many of the plans so far considered anonymous or “fatherless”, which have been listed in a specific appendix at the end of this dissertation.




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