New Abandoned Places: Side Effects of the “Miracle Architecture” in Spain

Across the turn of the 21th century, Spain was interested by a florid period of public and private architectural investments, driven by the so-called “Bilbao effect,” which is believed to start with the construction of Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao. However, the global financial crisis determined a period of economic stagnation with a subsequent hardship for the whole architectural sector, in which numerous projects failed to launch, and an equal number of already started projects were stopped in their construction. Consequently, Spain is now facing a new phenomenon: the existence of many buildings either left unfinished, or finished but never used, or even closed just after a short time after their opening. How many failed cases can we find in the Spanish territory? Can we consider them as rubbles, which continue to be a cost for the collectivity? The present paper considers this situation, aiming to understand the phenomenon of the abandonment of new architectures, through the analysis of selected case studies which are represented by iconic buildings utilized for cultural as well as touristic purposes. The objectives of this paper are: 1) find a relation between the general phenomenon of the “abandonment of the new” and the Spanish territory, 2) find how such new spaces have caused negative consequences for the communities of the concerned territories, 3) find how it’s possible to regenerate-integrate those abandoned architectures.