CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN CHESTE WORKERS UNIVERSITY AUDITORIUM (SPAIN). A GETTY FOUNDATION KEEPING IT MODERN GRANT

Abstract

Universidades laborales, or workers’ universities, were set up throughout Spain during the years of the dictatorship and were aimed at professionally training the working classes. The architect Fernando Moreno Barberá was the author of four centers: those of Las Palmas, 1970–73, Toledo, 1970–78, Malaga 1972–78 and Cheste 1967–69, his work reflecting an undoubted assimilation of the Modern legacy. Cheste Workers University was a guidance center designed to house as many as 5,000 boarding students of up to 14 years of age. The auditorium, currently closed for safety reasons, is an important architectural symbol and, as such, has been included in the Ministry of Culture’s National Plan for the Conservation of the 20th Century Heritage. A Conservation Management Plan is currently being drafted on the initiative of the Getty Foundation. This paper explains some details of this initiative and provides a preview of the strategy employed.