Spanish-American architecture

From the readings on OWL and some extra readings that I did we can derive some general points on why the Spanish adopted the grid urban form, how the Laws of the Indies influenced the Spanish American architecture and how the space was organized

First of all, as mentioned in the readings the only “new” thing that the Spanish architects found in the New World was a pre-urban form that was somewhat different from the urban morphology adopted in Europe at that time. The Spanish architects adopted the grid urban form for a variety of reasons:

1. If we carefully look at the pictures in the readings we can notice that all the cities are built around a Plaza Mayor. The Plaza Mayor is the focal point of these cities. Actually even the directions of the streets were chosen in such a way to protect the Plaza Mayor from the winds. (Wikipedia Information)
2. The cities that were built were very mechanic. Mechanic in the sense that the cities were meant to be cities that function for the population. Usually the site of the city would be a fertile land, near a river or near a water supply(could be a river, lake and so on). The land according to the Laws of the Indies was divided into parcels(like the early Romans did) in order for the agricultural production to be more efficient. The buildings still according to the Laws of the Indies had to be all the same size and height so that the city is aesthetic. Also the population growth was taken into account so the surface of the city was chosen in such a manner to host an explosion in population.
3. A third point that I think is important to make is that these cities(according to the readings) also resemble the bastides type of cities that France used to built. Bastides were built following a grid model, and usually built by a single founder. Beside the architectural similarities, I believe that these cities were similar to the bastides because it was a way to exert control and authority from the Empire that was in another continent.