Coinciding with the International Day of Forests, the deputy mayor of Madrid, Begona Villacisopened last Monday the first visitable hectares of the largest green infrastructure which is being built in Europe: the Metropolitan Forest. The green mass that will surround the capital has dimensions of the 21st century, but its concept was born at the end of the 19th century. Arturo Soria and Mata (Madrid, 1844 – 1920), named Favorite Son of the City of Madrid in January 2021, devised and developed in 1892 the concept of ‘Forest City’, which anticipated the Anglo-Saxon model of ‘Garden City’of 1898. “The denomination of city-garden is deficient, that of city-forest would be more complete because the tree is a more important part of the house than the flower of the garden”, wrote the urbanistas collected by the Arturo Soria Legacy Cultural Association.
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In 1882, Arturo Soria exposed in the newspaper ‘El Progreso’ the ideology of his great work, which still endures and whose model has been exported to numerous cities on the planet: The Linear City of Madrid. Urban planner, inventor, politician, journalist, builder, mathematician… In short, a genius who more than 100 years ago defended life in cities within natural environments. His multifaceted mind worked to ruralize the city and urbanize the countryside, seeking a symbiosis that would combine the progress of the capital, respect for the natural surroundings and the healthiness of the neighbourhoods. “For each family, a house; in each house, an orchard and a garden”as the essence of his work.
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With Arturo Soria an urbanism was also born that lasts in our days. “His ideas about him take into account the needs of the population in all aspects that affect us, such as sustainability, the environment, mobility, energy efficiency, sociocultural balance, etc.”. This is how Cristina Keller Ledesma-Ramos, founding member of the Arturo Soria Legacy Cultural Association, explains it to El Confidencial. “Madrid and Spain They owe a lot to Arturo Soria because he thought about and worried about the population as a whole, trying to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants”. It is not an easy task in the context of the end of the XIX century. “Putting the theory into practice took him more than thirty years, until the Linear City became a reality.” Madrid grew green.
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Trees planted in Linear City during Filomena. (Carlo Stella)
Trees planted in Linear City during Filomena. (Carlo Stella)
The arboreal Madrid of today germinated 100 years ago. “Where a tree cannot live, as happens in many streets of Madrid, people should not live.” It is one of the most remembered quotes by Arturo Soria. Keller recounts that this phrase makes all the sense in the world from its progressive and humanist concept, “because without green areas, the population will not go out, will not interact, will not communicate in the same way. It will not generate new ideas to drive that progress. With the Linear City, the concept of the benefits of trees was anticipated, conceiving a city bordered by strips of insulating forests that, at the same time, purify the air and form part of a unique urban scene”.
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Arturo Soria and Mata. (City of Madrid)
Arturo Soria and Mata. (City of Madrid)
From the Cultural Association, Cristina Keller reminds “the 400 families who believed in the titanic project of Arturo Soriain full Industrial Revolution and with the massive exodus from the countryside to the city. A great example of the transformation of Madrid, where an arid area became an orchard, which today is still one of the most pleasant areas to live in the capital. We want to preserve our own unique signs of identity, currently in force, with which to defend family and work conciliation from the concept of ‘fifteen-minute city’ or ‘green city’”.
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Madrid is one of the greenest cities in Europe, although with nuances. Without medium- and long-term planning, the photographs of politicians filling empty pits with trees and cutting commemorative ribbons are mere marketing exercises (and waste of public money). “You have to plan the location of the trees, leaving enough space between them for them to develop properly.”
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Luis Arrabal García, forestry engineer of the Tragsatec Quality and Environmental Assessment Group, and member of the Urban Forest Management Group of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Arbocity Association, explains in El Confidencial that “Not only can trees be planted in cities. There are other very interesting vegetation strata such as bushes and meadows, with herbs that have a low water requirement. You have to be careful to avoid interference with elements of urban furniture and it is very important to carry a proper maintenancethat guarantees a good sanitary state of the trees, to avoid falling branches and trunks”, as it happened with Filomenawhich revealed the terrible state of a large part of the capital’s tree mass.
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Medal given to schoolchildren as a souvenir of that first Tree Festival in 1896. (Carlo Stella)
Medal given to schoolchildren as a souvenir of that first Tree Festival in 1896. (Carlo Stella)
urban trees and green areas are essential in citiesbecause “they provide us with a series of benefits that improve our quality of life. Trees provide shade in summer and lower air temperature. the CO2 and help us fight climate change. improve air quality, producing oxygen and reducing pollution. They provide us with recreational spaces and improve our state of mind when we go out for a walk or play sports”. Arturo Soria already knew all this at the end of the 19th century.
“We must choose species that tolerate pollution,” says Arrabal
Cities are also hostile to trees. According to Arrabal, “The urban environment can be aggressive, so the most suitable tree species must be chosen so that, for example, they better tolerate pollution levels. It is important to protect the trees from being hit by cars and increase the size of the tree pits so that their roots develop well and are better anchored to the ground”. And, although it seems like a minor recommendation, “spread the benefits of trees with awareness campaigns. If we involve the neighbors in their care, they will feel the trees as their own and treat them better”.
Educational idea in which Arturo Soria was also a pioneer. On March 26, 1896, the First Tree Festival was held in Spain, on the Pinar del Rey land ceded by the Madrid Urbanization Company, company in which the genius from Madrid already participatedwho is the protagonist of a brilliant exhibition at the Madrid History Museum ‘Arturo Soria, a polyhedral mind 1844-1920’.