Laura Rives. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Laura Rives from Pamplona, a graduate of the University of Navarra's School of Architecture , recently defended her doctoral thesis , in which she analyzes the urban development of her hometown from 1950 to 1990.

"This research aims to study the process of adjustment between the Building and the free space, from whose relationship we understand the shape of the city," explains the author.

At the beginning, the doctor details the initial "deconfiguration" of the relationship between free space and Building, as a result of the influence of the Modern Movement: "The subject building is left with a great freedom of design for the interior distribution of housing, as can be seen, for example, in the neighborhood of San Juan".

He goes on to point out "the slow and gradual recovery of the city and the alternatives that bet on more defined free spaces -Azpilagaña and Iturrama-, both at neighborhood and district level -Ermitagaña, Mendebaldea-", in his words. At this point she points out that "it was precisely the citizen participation itself that rejected the results of the Moderno to bet on recovering the free spaces of the traditional city, acting, fundamentally, in the consolidated areas -interior reform plans of the Casco Antiguo or San Jorge".

Laura Rives also analyzes a later phase in which the city seeks "a new structure and image that values its cultural and natural heritage" and exemplifies this phase with the place of Mendebaldea, "which allowed a new center in the southwest area of the city", the redevelopment of the environment of the Citadel, and with all the actions next to the Arga river park and the walls -the Rochapea Plan-.

Finally, he makes reference letter to the change of current trend, "based on the new theories of sustainability and mobility, and the interest in the Structures of the whole". In this sense, he points out that society and the Economics of the new century demand "the change to an urban model based on integral urban regeneration". An example is how Pamplona and its Metropolitan area has opted for public open spaces based on the natural elements of the territory: the river park and Mount San Cristobal: "Certainly, it is this subject of public spaces that can be able to structure the territory at a time like the present, in which the landscape is the protagonist and the design of open spaces should not be guided by administrative boundaries," he concludes.

Laura Rives' thesis , entitled Pamplona, de ciudad a metrópoli: development urbano de 1950 a 1990, was directed by José María Ordeig Corsini, professor at department of Urban Planning at School of Architecture of the University of Navarra. The board of the thesis was composed of the following professors: José Luque, Javier Monclus, Juan Cruz Alli, Luis Moya González and Enrique Maya.