In the second half of the twentieth century, especially with the arrival of democracy and economic opening, Spain experienced what is known as the ‘property boom.’ This is where our relationship with the environment reached soap-opera levels. While other countries were beginning to discuss conservation and protecting their natural areas, in Spain we decided that the best thing we could do with our unspoiled beaches was fill them with vacation apartments.
And what about the mountains? They, too, were better off with a nice asphalt road allowing city dwellers to arrive quickly in their SUVs to go hiking—wearing designer backpacks and without too much contact with actual nature, of course. Because, let us be honest, in Spain we are more inclined to admire the landscape from a distance, preferably from a terrace with beer and tapas, than to plunge into nature and get covered in mud.
The Spanish coastline, especially the Costa del Sol and the Valencian Community, became an architectural experiment whose apparent aim was to discover how many apartment blocks we could build per square kilometer. The sea was there, yes, but only as a backdrop for selfies. In fact, sometimes it felt as though beaches were not there to be enjoyed, but to provide a good place to build. And if, in the process, we destroyed the dunes, chopped down the trees, and evicted the occasional seagull, well, what can you do?