Transnational Expertise and Local Policies for the Architecture of Spanish Tourism Industry

This chapter discusses the political, economic and spatial encounters between transnational networks and national structures behind the raise of international tourist trade and local industry in the 1960s Spain. Through a cross-reading between the privatization-oriented transnational expertise of Kurt Krapf for the 1962 report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Spain and the state-oriented policies of the Francoist regime, the essay expects to show how mass tourism development was structured in different scales among diverse institutions and national and international expertise. The intricate play between dual opposites at different levels, transnational vs. national, private vs. state, ideology vs. depoliticization, periphery vs. center, coastal landscapes vs. interior territories, international style vs. vernacular and historical, that transverses the period is analyzed through the role played by the two state-run companies devoted to the construction and management of touristic installations, Paradores Nacionales and ENTURSA. By focusing on the state policies as well as on selected architectural examples, the text aims to shed some light on the transformation of the country into the main mass tourism destination in Europe in the period.