The urban configuration of present-day Terrassa is largely shaped by the unprecedented demographic explosion that took place there in the mid-20th century. Between 1940 and 1975, the city’s population tripled, growing from 45,000 to 153,000 inhabitants in just thirty-five years.
The main causes of this growth were a series of migratory waves from the south of the Iberian Peninsula, the rise in birth rates in Spain during the 1960s and 1970s, and the progressive decline in mortality rates. This growth occurred in a context of nearly total lack of urban planning, leading initially to phenomena such as self-built housing and shantytowns, and later to the creation of new neighborhoods on the city’s outskirts.
By the mid-1970s, population growth had stalled, primarily due to the textile crisis, which had been the city’s main economic driver since the 19th century. However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new wave of mass migration—this time primarily from North Africa and Latin America—led to a significant demographic rebound. Today, with 225,227 registered inhabitants in 2023, Terrassa is the fourth most populous city in Catalonia and the twenty-second in Spain.
Regarding the peak of the demographic boom in the 1960s and 1970s, an urban legend began circulating at an unspecified time, claiming that a group of renowned Japanese architects visited Terrassa to study its urban layout and concluded that it was the most poorly planned city in the world. Although the truth of this story is highly doubtful, it undeniably speaks to a certain sentiment that, in my opinion, remains present in the collective psyche of Terrassa’s inhabitants.
In Sede Egarensis is a long-term visual exploration of the urban, peri-urban, and suburban landscapes of contemporary Terrassa. Beginning in 2022, through a series of walks across the city’s various neighborhoods and districts, I started building an image archive with a particular focus on popular and self-built architecture, the edges and voids of the urban fabric, remnants of the past that persist in the present, and signs of futures that might (or might not) come to pass.
This portfolio, created in collaboration with the Laboratori Creatiu (Creative Lab) of Amics de les Arts and Joventuts Musicals de Terrassa, presents an initial selection of eight images from the project, which can be viewed in its entirety—and as it continues to be updated—on the website www.insedeegarensis.com.
Xavier Aragonès / Terrassa, April 2024
(Text included in the limited-edition image portfolio published on the occasion of the exhibition Elective Affinities – In Sede Egarensis, held in May 2024 at the La Cúpula gallery of Amics de les Arts i Joventuts Musicals de Terrassa.)