“Las Trescientas”: A Neighborhood of Cáceres (Spain) of the Modern Movement for the Working Class

Abstract

Spain's best contribution to the Modern Movement was the construction of housing settlements for the working class, where urban planning was combined with building design. The aim was to alleviate the severe deficit of social housing in rural municipalities and urban centers through agricultural colonization settlements, minimum settlements, directed settlements, neighborhood absorption units (U.V.A.), and other types of neighborhoods promoted by the public administration. We bring to the forefront the U.V.A. of ‘Las Trescientas’ in the city of Cáceres (Spain), promoted in 1961 by the Obra Sindical del Hogar y Arquitectura (O.S.H.A.) and designed by the Cáceres architect Tomás Civantos Hernández, one of the most prestigious professionals in Extremadura, with significant achievements in both building and urban planning, making him a reference for modernity. Las Trescientas project (1964), one of the first projects of his professional career, is an outstanding example of using architecture as a way to solve the social housing issues for blue collar workers with limited income, but using a modern image, and with an aesthetically pleasing result constructed in a durable way. The author emphasizes that the houses are designed to provide shelter for low income families, who currently live in unworthy housing or slums with unhealthy living conditions. Therefore, we understand this project deserves to be considered as a reference because it follows the principles of the Modern Movement, but it was built with better construction quality and it has stand the pass of time much better than others. © 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.