‘Train tracks, channels of prosperity’: The case of Ciudad Valdeluz

Abstract

Valdeluz City is a new town located around a train station of the high-speed line Madrid-Barcelona. It is planned to host a population of 30,000 inhabitants in the future who, according to the publicity, "will begin to live in a new city". This article seeks to reflect upon how the advertising treated the creation of the city, and the images projected about this residential complex, offers information about different aspects related to the city's role in the post-industrial society. Thus, the text gives an overview on issues such as the emphasis on connectivity, the way that the categories of space and time are objectified, urban planning strategies used in the negotiation of space, the consequences of fragmentation of urban space or the logic of differentiation, stratification and socialization that are established in the city