Drawings that immortalize the city. The latent and persecuted architecture of the El Cabanyal

Abstract

After ten years, drawing indiscriminately the neighborhoods of Valencia, for no other reason than to observe and represent every corner of the city, we finally decided to use the communicative capacity of drawing as a tool to reclaim El Cabanyal’s negletic state of abandonment, that has been going through for many years, regardless its political burden. After setting this goal and analysing the morphological and social history of this neighborhood, we decided to travel the streets and rooftops of El Cabanyal, talk to its people, and draw, in situ, those different spaces, shapes, colors, atmospheres ... giving rise to dozens of drawings that immortalize the (still alive) remains of this urban ecosystem. Paper-shaped witnesses sketched with latent architectures, persecuted and threatened by oblivion that will accompany us during the course of this paper. After ten years, drawing indiscriminately the neighborhoods of Valencia, for no other reason than to observe and represent every corner of the city, we finally decided to use the communicative capacity of drawing as a tool to reclaim El Cabanyal’s negletic state of abandonment, that has been going through for many years, regardless its political burden. After setting this goal and analysing the morphological and social history of this neighborhood, we decided to travel the streets and rooftops of El Cabanyal, talk to its people, and draw, in situ, those different spaces, shapes, colors, atmospheres ... giving rise to dozens of drawings that immortalize the (still alive) remains of this urban ecosystem. Paper-shaped witnesses sketched with latent architectures, persecuted and threatened by oblivion that will accompany us during the course of this paper.

Keywords

• dibujo urbano
• el cabanyal
• valencia
• comunicación
• representación
• arquitectura