Tourist micro-landscapes. Emilio Chinarro in Majorca: "El Loro Verde"

Paper presentation, Touriscape2. Transversal Tourism and Landscape, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. From 5th to 6th November 2020.

After 2018 conference Touriscape1 celebrated in Torremolinos, the second edition of the conference Touriscape has taken place virtually due to the covid-19 pandemics.

Papers presented deal with research on tourism in diverse geographies –Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Japan or Brazil, among others-. They are necessary to understand tourist development, to appraise architect’s answers to the questions posed by new leisure typologies and to foster critical reflections that may boost actions that help in managing tourist places in a more sustainable way.

I have presented the paper "Micropaisajes turísticos. Emilio Chinarro en Mallorca: El Loro Verde". My research focuses on El Loro Verde, a tiny building created in 1960 in Palmanova (Majorca) by Emilio Chinarro. It was demolished shortly after to free space for a larger and dull construction, as the area was under a strong urban pression. The paper aims at recovering the memory of the building and of its architect, who proposed a blend of modernity and tradition. Furthermore, my paper considers how fast and uncontrolled urban growth of tourist areas can distort not only natural landscape but also leisure architectures.

The complete text can be read in the Conference proceedings.

Tourist construction in the Balearic Islands (1939-2005). Architecture, urbanism and photography

Oral defense of the doctoral thesis. PhD in History, History of Art and Geography, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 6^th 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 21^st century and the kitsch phenomena

+info: abstract in Teseo

+info: News on the oral defense on the website of the Universitat de les Illes Balears