Colonization and urbanization of the energys territory: National Institute of Industry company towns (1941-1975)

Abstract

The National Institute of Industry (INI) was created in Spain in 1941 as an instrument of the fascist dictatorship to stimulate the development of a national industry. Tasked with colonizing the territory and making it productive, the INI exerted a transforming influence on vast rural and urban areas through the construction of industrial plants, infrastructures, public works, and company towns, whose morphological and landscape impact allows us to understand the profound mutation of the spatial and social structure of these territories. The industrial sectors promoted by the INI are characterized by their diversity, transversality, and territorial extension. Those linked to the production of electricity and the transport of fuels were essential. This study explores the heritage values of energy-related urban facilities through a diachronic analysis of the urban and territorial transformation mechanisms that have favored a specific solution for industrial company towns.