The pathological drift of the social space in the neoliberal real-estate model of Madrid

Abstract

Urban morphology and city deterioration have stayed out of the interpretative models of the real-estate boom and its consequences. Surpluses have been outlined for the economic risks and problems they imply, subordinating morphological changes and processes of urban destruction. Nevertheless, these real-estate practices, far from the trading balances, are unequivocally serving a process of accumulation intimately associated with these morphologic transformations. The Almendra Central of Madrid illustrates this drift of the social space, obliged to offer a sufficiently stable and tidy structure —hierarchic and exclusive— to guide and guarantee the process of accumulation that the model develops. Drawing upon political economy and urban history, the sequence of real-estate modalities and its morphologic implications— that refer back to the collective imaginary in which this morphology is grounded— are understood and revealed.