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The Use of Orthogonal Grids in the Design of US Military Bases in Spain

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Abstract

At the beginning of the Cold War, the United States established military bases at various points around the globe to counter Soviet influence. The construction of these bases was an unprecedented undertaking because its scope. In Spain, an extensive network of military installations was built throughout the country in only 5 years. The main nuclei of this network were the bases of Torrejón, Zaragoza, Morón, and Rota. This article aims to show that these bases share a common design project which implements an underlying grid-like system in the organization of their masterplans. After detailed study of the Torrejón air base, we aim to demonstrate that this grid-like system was conceived as a sophisticated and precise graphic tool able to facilitate the design, construction, and maintenance of the bases, as well as to back an ideological project.

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Fig. 1

Source: http://usarmygermany.com website

Fig. 2

Source: U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps Bulletin (1957)

Fig. 3

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 4

Source: US Embassy Photographic Collection. Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid

Fig. 5

Source: the authors

Fig. 6

Source: the authors

Fig. 7

Source: the authors

Fig. 8

Source: Informes de la Construcción (1958a)

Fig. 9

Source: US Embassy Photographic Collection. Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid

Fig. 10

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 11

Source: Google Earth. Image © 2021 Maxar Technologies

Fig. 12

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 13

Source: above: España. Ministerio de Defensa. Archivo Histórico del Ejército del Aire, Sig N-001450-003; below: the authors

Fig. 14

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 15

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 16

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 17

Source: Torrejón de Ardoz Airbase C.E.S. Archive

Fig. 18

Source: the authors

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Notes

  1. According to Reps (1980: 175), Oglethorpe could have found inspiration for the plan in military treatises on encampments.

  2. ‘Ward’ of course, as Kostof (1993: 96), points out, is a political term.

  3. The authors consulted the Agreements and the Technical Annexes conserved in the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares (Spain), Sig 82/21130.

  4. Pilar Salazar Lozano in her 2018 Ph.D. dissertation (Salazar Lozano 2018c) devotes a comprehensive and very well documented chapter to the construction of the US military bases in Spain. In that pioneering study she explains in detail the organizational structure.

  5. The authors obtained a copy of this translated manual during their visits to the Torrejón Air Base in July 2019.

  6. As reported by the base’s maintenance personnel, who once maintained direct contact with the Americans before they left the base in 1992 and it reverted to the Spanish Army. Source: Interview by the authors with engineer Nelson Burgueño Rodríguez, July and September 2019.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank in the first place General Pablo Guillén García, Commander in Chief of Torrejón Air Base for his more than generous support and help. He has been the key person during the research process and the visits to the Base(s). The personnel both at Torrejón Air Base (especial thanks to Captain María Belén Gonzáles Andrés at the Infrastructure Squadron) and Morón Air Base (especial thanks to Sargent Carlos García Miñana, from the Comunication Office at Morón) received us kindly and helped in the more friendly way. We should especially mention here Nelson Burgueño Rodriguez, Mechanical Engineer at the Torrejón Air Base: without his knowledge and generosity, especially in the difficult task of deciphering the intricacies of the drawings, this could have not been possible. Finally, Eloy Blanco Rodríguez at the Archivo Histórico del Ejército del Aire deserves also to be mentioned.

Archival sources:

Archivo General de la Administración. Alcalá de Henares (Spain).

Archivo Histórico del Ejército del Aire. Villaviciosa de Odón (Spain).

Torrejón Air Base Civil Engineering Squadron (C.E.S.) Archives.

Morón Air Base Infrastructure Squadron Archives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IE School of Architecture and Design, IE University, Segovia, Madrid, Spain

    José Vela Castillo

  2. Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de la Edificación, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain

    Pedro García Martínez

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Correspondence to José Vela Castillo.

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Vela Castillo, J., García Martínez, P. The Use of Orthogonal Grids in the Design of US Military Bases in Spain. Nexus Netw J 23, 737–766 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-021-00557-w

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