Bedroom, kitchen and living room: Hygienic-sanitary measures in the working-class housing of Elche (1923-1930)

Abstract

In the 20s social hygiene used the ideal constructs of hygienic family, architecture, and hygienic culture to be seen as a social science referred to homo hygienicus. Hygienism is the protagonist of the implementation of provincial and municipal health in the development of “health architecture”. Within the populist strategy of Primo de Rivera, the policy of building cheap houses to improve the living conditions of the poorest classes is remarkable, as well as the creation of primary schools in the municipalities, in an attempt to avoid social conflicts.

We present the case of the city of Elche as representative of the Mediterranean to explain how the housing-workshop extends to the rest of the habitat and merges the personal and family context with the work, with important consequences for health. Therefore, as an objective of the research we intend to establish the connection between housing and health in the period from 1923 to 1930.