ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research study is the analysis of Europan housing, the most important laboratory of living ideas in Europe. This competition has influenced the Spanish architecture at three levels: in the work of "young" teams of architects, in Public Administration and the realization of experimental social housing. This last level is one of the main challenges of Europan.
Within the sphere of Europan, this thesis focuses on two aspects: the first is the theoretical approaches that have developed statements of the contest in the last twenty years; the second aspect is the social housing built in Spain. Also, the scattered information of these buildings is collected, analyzed and redrawn and all this has been reflected on cards.
The thesis is structured in three parts. The first part comprises the first and second chapters that try to frame the study by providing an introduction and some background. The second part is the central body of the thesis and it is formed up of four chapters (3, 4, 5 and 6). The third chapter analyzes Europan as a laboratory of ideas, the fourth chapter analyzes the housing built, the fifth chapter consists of an assessment of the contributions of Europan and finally, the conclusions are on chapter sixth. The third part of information summarizes the literature and the annexes. Last one collects scattered papers that offer an overview of Europan.
Finally, in this thesis, after studying the theory and practice of Europan, we offer an approach to the ways of life at the turn of the century in Spain through its contributions after twenty years of its existence. The novelty of this thesis lies in the fact that this is a subject of study not covered so far in the field of this research.