Vivienda obrera en Bilbao y el Bajo Nerviónlas casas baratas, una nueva forma de alojamiento (1911-1936)

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th Biscay was internationally considered an outstanding centre of iron extraction and a remarkable iron and steel production point. Mines took over the Triano mountains and factories conquered the Nervion river banks carrying a huge wave of population with them. Housing all these people became a prime objective. Likewise, Spanish institutions, overwhelmed by similar problems in other areas of the country, devised and put into practice a complex administrative mechanism to build the first state-subsidized houses. Thus, the so called Cheap Houses were the official answer to the working-class housing shortage and Biscay was one of the regions with a greater development of this kind of building solutions. This research begins with the investigation of the origin and source of the problem in Bilbao and in the Nervion river basin, to later go over the measures adopted by the government and by the provincial council in this matter. Having done this, there is a thorough review of the most relevant features of the Cheap Houses building system all over Biscay, to move then to the reality of life in Bilbao Barakaldo, Sestao, Portugalete, Geucho and Erandio, putting special emphasis on the local concerns. The research ends with a comparative study of the Cheap Houses built in Biscay in contrast to those built in Barcelona, Sabadell and Tarrasa, establishing similarities and differences with the most important industrial centre in that moment in Spain.