Why Madrid is Insanely Well Designed

A lot of cities are praised for their well-rounded transit systems, urban design, and livability (think Amsterdam - Paris - Tokyo). One city that doesn't get a lot of attention is Madrid. But, it should.

So, what makes Madrid special?

04:57 *59% 🤦

Chapters:
00:00 - 00:49 Salamanca
00:50 - 01:44 Urban Planning in Spain
01:45 - 02:38 Comparison to the US
02:39 - 03:56 How Madrid Expanded
03:57 - 04:21 Dallas
04:22 - 05:04 Madrid Metro System
05:05 - 05:43 Outro

#madrid #urbanism #design #urbanplanning #metro #spain

[joseantoniodepilares]

This design is true of all Spanish cities, and even many towns. Living in flats, sharing the stairs and the streets, meeting your neighbours everyday (even if you do not know them by name) creates a kind of social commonwealth that you could never get in a society that lives driving everywhere.

[jcasstudio]

I lived in many cities, including Mexico City (8 years) Madrid (4 years) and London (5 years and counting) and I can say what I miss the most is that you can walk to any part of it if you live in the center or close to it, essentially all the important places are in a walkable distance which makes you healthy and happy... I miss that city

[ChesterRGC]

As a Madrid grown up young adult, I cannot be happier with the public transport system we have here. People from outside Madrid usually don't understand how I don't have a car.
Truth is I don't need a car. Parking in Madrid centre is expensive and old cars are not allowed. And under 26 years we only pay 8€/month for our public transport card, that covers ALL trains, buses and underground metro lines. It's really the best place for not owning a car.

[Hawxxfan]

as a resident of dallas i can confirm that nobody knows life outside of their private vehicle here

[taranvainas]

In Madrid you are not very aware of the long distances you walk, nor the time it takes to get from one place to another. You can walk three miles and feel like you've walked just one. Life in the streets, the architecture, the HUGE number of shops everywhere, the squares and parks, musicians and acrobats brightening the streets, the terraces... slow down time and compress space. Around here we usually say: "From Madrid to heaven."

[lorenzoparticular]

I've travelled all around the world and I've not found a better place to live than Madrid, with a perfect balance between urban and green areas. I love it!!

[harakirienlacocina]

The spanish cities are made for walking to any place. Obviusly Madrid is a big city where the people can't go walking to long distances, but this make many sense of home in your neighborhood where you can go walking to the market, the medical center, the shops, the park, etc. The neighborhoods are little systems where you have all that you need and you know the people.
We have a spanish friend living in Dallas, and when we was in this city to visit we feel like in another planet: she lives in a house miles away from the downtown, in a neighborhood of thousands of identical houses, in the middle of many identical areas, and have to take the car for anything! (school, doctor, gym, supermarket, to have dinner, etc etc). I don't see a bus in this area in all the days, are places building to live with a car, losing hours every morning to go to the job with no option to take a transport.
If also are cities with no historical buildings of more than 200 years or places to enjoy a walk.. what sense have to live in?

[migueljoserivera]

One of the best thing about the density in Madrid is that you can almost always walk on a 1-2 lane street between 6-story buildings well sheltered against cold winds in Winter or unbearable sunlight in the Summer. Unfortunately the newer neighbourhoods like Sanchinarro or Ensanche de Vallecas have some overwidened streets that discourage walking, negate the shelter from the elements and encourage vehicles to speed leading to less safe streets. Still, Madrid has a lot of transit and parks making it very livable, and even the places that aren't very good are still fine.

[maximataramundi]

As a “madrileña” (born in Madrid) I thank you for sharing this positive information, so well explained! Here, in Spain, to tend to be overcritical. 😅

[zipisergio]

I am from Madrid and I did NOT expect my neighborhood to appear that many times!! I am so excited jajajaja

[cocazade]

This is what I love about Madrid, and Spain in general. Even in the most outer suburbs there is still great density. Most things are still within walking distance and it means Spain preserves its countryside for nature rather than sprawl. Spain has some of the emptiest countryside in Europe too

[biospeak]

It's so lovely to go out at night in Madrid and walk back through these vibey streets in the balmy climate. It's urban living like nowhere else. There is also a tradition to build large family size apartments so people are encouraged to live in the city because they can have a good quality of life.

[SalFilippelli]

Great video! I spent the summer in Madrid last year for studying, and I'm about to move there in a couple months and I could not be more excited. Living in a walkable city is going to be so amazing

[CedricJustice]

I'm an American and I thought I hated large cities.

Until I moved to Spain.

Madrid (and BCN) is really livable. Every time I visit I am floored with how absolutely FRIENDLY everyone is. In cities in America, once you crest about 2.5 million people, friendliness goes out the window--it starts to feel frenetic and competitive. I think a combination of this design and the culture contribute to this. The quality of life everywhere I've been in Spain has been fantastic and unmatched by any of my other experiences.

There are, I'm sure, a lot of factors contributing to these different feelings, but I never thought I would consider living in a city of 7M people. But I consider Madrid often.

[ulra]

As a Spaniard who isn't from Madrid, I can state that similar urban design takes place in most of our national geography (of course, proportionally). Even towns with 20k inhabitants follow the same plan: the historic town centre surrounded by 3-6 stories tall apartment blocks with wide sidewalks and urban furniture (trees, benches...), with tons of services at ground level.

As a fun anecdote, because of the way that our cities grow, you can be walking on a sidewalk in the outskirts, passing next to a bar or a pharmacy like any other part of town, and in the opposite sidewalk there may be nothing. Just a big area of wilderness until the next town.

I remember I once had to show some friends the high school I was in, and the entrance looked like we were in a normal street of the neighborhood, but when we left the building through a secondary door, they were surprised that we had reached the place where "the city ended", there was nothing else behind the building, just some shrubs. It kinda feels like when you stray away for too long in a videogame.

(This can make wildlife enter the city by mistake, news of wild boars entering cities and provoking chaos among citizens are not uncommon)

Even though this type of urban design is still strong in most Spanish cities, I can notice there has been a rise in secluded neighborhoods composed of unifamiliar houses, for some reason, it is very appealing for the Spanish upper-middle class to live the "American" way, and I absolutely despise how "Suburbia" is expanding more and more over here.

And it's really interesting that the "polarization" about the use of cars can happen in the same city at the same time. It is absolutely possible that a metropolitan area is allowing this pseudo-suburbia to be built next to it with no bus lines or hospitals or any type of ground-level establishment (increasing car traffic), while there's also an increase of pedestrianization of streets and of bike lines in city centres, plus also the new mandatory restrictions for cars that aren't owned by residents (decreasing car traffic).

[alvarofernandez]

Great video. I was born in Madrid and actually live in the neighborhood shown in some of the images, 'Las Rosas' close to Atletico de Madrid's stadium so it all feels natural to me. Next year I'm going to stay 5 months studying in Sweden so I'll see how urban planning is like in there.

[anita.mq]

As a person who doesn't live in the city but on a tiny town I must say that an other amazing thing about this city is how well conected is whith the whole Community of Madrid

[lioneliv]

0:15 I’ve eaten at that restaurant on the corner (they have amazing gambas)! My ex used to live one block away from there, higher up in the Calle de Alcantara. It’s such an amazing neighbourhood, in which I dream to live if I move to Madrid one day 😊

[todgod]

This is an amazing video!! I’ve always wanted to visit Madrid and check out their amazing metro network and connection to that beautiful high speed rail network

[miguelmontalban]

I am from Madrid and Id say this is a pretty accurate video! Glad I came across it, thanks!