The “deep plan” as an engine of modernity in Barcelona’s residential buildings. 1930-1970

Abstract

The large building depth is a remarkable feature of the housing building of the historical urban fabric of Barcelona and is one of the elements that most characterize the identity of the city. The article investigates the influence of the “deep-plan” in the housing building of the second modernity, focusing on the difference between permanence and transformations The deep plan was originally a response to the high demand for housing, but it turns into a structural law that becomes a common ground for the architects of the second modernity on which they experiment and introduce innovations in the arrangement of spaces. The deep plan has syntactic meaning in the plan layout arrangement. The overlapping of innovative theories, connections with another cultural environment as Milan, and professional practice turned into a figure with a semantic meaning.