During the last few years we have considered the condition of the built environment in the area around the Ría de Arousa in the region known as the Rías Baixas in Galicia. The region is rightly famous for its food products, especially but not exclusively shellfish and fish. The small-scale farming system has also maintained the quality of meat, vegetables, milk and eggs and other agricultural produce. The region’s isolated position and practices that are often regarded as outdated, are identifiable by this more natural situation. On the other hand, it’s variable economic situation being both poor and isolated but also intermittently benefiting from the increasing importance of the fishing industry, has exposed it to erratic urban development and ill-considered planning and traffic planning. While the failure of modern development, the indiscriminate destruction of historical buildings and the inappropriate scale of traffic solutions is not unique to Galicia or indeed Spain, it is exceptional in its coarseness and especially exposed in its relation to the extraordinary natural beauty of the place.

This uncomfortable relationship between the beauty of the natural environment and the ugliness of the built environment was further exaggerated during the financial boom and the inappropriate speculation of development which exploited land values without regard to physical or social structure. The ensuing collapse halted this tendency but also created a landscape of stranded buildings, finished and unfinished, occupied and abandoned, highlighting the lack of planning and the discontinuous nature of modern development...