Territorial management of industrial heritage in Castilla y León (Spain): factories and landscapes

Abstract

Concern for industrial heritage in Spain is a relatively recent phenomenon. Traditionally, said assets, especially those set in urban environments (isolated buildings, industrial units or full industrial landscapes) faced three main threats. First of all, a fragile social memory associated the factory with often negative vital experiences, such as manual labour, pollution, industrial accidents and death; in other words, the possibility of a resource being recognised for its cultural value depends not only on its objective qualities but also on its social acceptance; urban industrial landscape and architecture have always been viewed as an obstacle to be removed rather than a heritage to be kept (Ortega, 1998). Secondly, the basically utilitarian criterion that characterises this type of architecture hampers the conservation and reuse of industrial architectural heritage because, in contrast to other richer heritages more closely associated with the dominant culture in Western tradition, the factory building has always occupied a marginal place. Finally, industrial architectural heritage faces a major contradiction: although the factory building has hardly any value in itself and its conversion for other uses is particularly costly, the land it stands on is particularly valuable and inversely proportional to the degree of abandonment and the protective commitments it involves.