Oral defense of the doctoral thesis. PhD in History, History of Art and Geography, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 6th June 2019.
Tourist architecture has not been analysed from a historic and artistic perspective until recent times, despite the impact of tourism on contemporary society. Tourism has been the main economic resource in the Balearic Islands and buildings for leisure have caused a radical change in the archipelago’s morphology. Nevertheless, these architectures have been scarcely studied in the field of art history with the only exception of the works by Dr. Miguel Seguí.
In last years, I have been preparing my doctoral thesis on architecture and urbanism created for tourism purposes from 1939 to 2005. I have studied the buildings and the urban plans mainly, identified property developers, analysed legislation and have highlighted the most outstanding creations. Besides, I have examined the dissemination of the projects in photography considering commercial approaches, such as postcards, and professional perspectives, as the ones reflected in architectural press.
So, the thesis covers from the slow recovery of tourism after Spanish Civil War, when traditionalism was the main architectural style, to the very beginnings of 21st century and the kitsch phenomena
+info: abstract in Teseo
