Issue 73 of the journal Canelobre, edited by the Alicante Cultural Institute Juan Gil-Albert, has recently come to light. This comprehensive publication reflects the extensive research and dissemination work that its coordinators David Beltrá and Verónica Quiles have developed in recent years (and it’s worth visiting the Trade Museum in Novelda for that). The informative publication explores all productive sectors and industries in the state of Alicante that have a global impact and projection.
However, the magazine, directed by David and Verónica, forgets some of the most relevant figures that led to such a state of affairs, although it repeats some architectural aspects and elements that allow us to understand how the province came to be a major tourism scene that has survived to this day. transformation. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to remember those characters and architects, especially in the middle of the last century, who knew how to have a vision for the future and to make our cities what they are today.
In this way, the figure of architect Juan Guardiola Gayá, who in 1959 will do the first planning of Playa de San Juan, which will become the most important tourist-oriented housing project in the state of Alicante, is very important to me. Inspired by other rationalist proposals, it is a large urban project on a large trapezoidal surface parallel to the sea line, which stands out with its grid-shaped geometric simplicity and the regularity of its blocks (180 x 260 meters). It was successful all over Europe at that time. This includes the rapid construction of buildings, especially second homes, and the hotels and leisure services (restaurants, nightclubs, recreation areas, etc.) associated with such development. Guardiola also tells us Torre Vistamar (1963) or La Rotonda urbanization (1965). beautiful modern buildings like left.
Juan Antonio García Solera was also building the Vistahermosa residential complex (1962) around the Alicante orchard; here the quality of design ranged from the scale of an entire residential neighborhood to the design of the smallest detail.
Likewise, we find prominent figures outside of architecture, such as the most venerable Benidormí, former mayor Pedro Zaragoza Orts, who dedicated himself to promoting the city of Benidorm only to sell his famous “bottled sun” all over Spain. but in Scandinavian countries, to the point of traveling to Helsinki to have almond trees blooming in the city’s main shop windows. Zaragoza Orts managed to bring a Northern family to visit the Costa Blanca capital and announced the visit in full via No-Do cameras. This wide resonance not only allowed it to gain the sympathy of the regime (Franco’s wife came to stay at the mayor’s house), but also made it the “fourth Basque province” thanks to its agreement with the Caja de Vizcaya. 150 newlywed couples spent their holidays in the city of skyscrapers.
Undoubtedly, Alicante has been the cradle of many involved names whose work has been recognized almost universally, honoring the entrepreneurial spirit (sometimes even more so than we recognize ourselves), and we cannot forget what brought us to these achievements. Change of modernity and new weather to the architecture and landscape of our city.