The George Collins Collection on Linear City Planning

Arturo Soria y Mata (1844-1920) acknowledged by some authors as the inventor of modern linear planning, was clearly one of its most enthusiastic advocates in late nineteenth century Spain. During the 1880's he elaborated his theory through a series of articles in the newspaper El Progreso, and during the 1890's he administered the pilot project of the Ciudad Lineal of Madrid. The original marketing of the Ciudad Lineal was announced in 1892 in a brochure Ferrocarril-Tranvía de Circunvalación de Madrid, where the sale of shares of the Compañía Madrileña de Urbanización that would carry out the plan was announced. The actual construction of a portion of the Ciudad Lineal began in 1894, but the urbanization remained limited in scope given that subsequent phases were never materialized. Soria y Mata also published the journal La Ciudad Lineal - during 35 years - until the Spanish Civil War began. The periodical, of city planning with a particular emphasis on linear planning, focused on the practical and social advantages of this 'modern' city with its equitable distribution of land, where an endless street - and its accompanying broad band of land occupation - would extend continuously between cities joining them in a vast network. Soria y Mata's interests also involved research and publications on mathematics and geometry (Origen Poliédrico de las Especies, 1897) as well as miscellaneous inventions (Teodolito Impresor-Automático, 1870; Avisador de la Crecida de los Ríos, 1879).