Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This text reviews the book Vivienda y Migración. Aportes desde la Geografía Crítica published by Ediciones Monosílabo and Facultad de Filosofía y Letras UNAM, coordinated by Luis Alberto Salinas and Ana Melisa Pardo Both are researchers from the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Throughout eight chapters, authors of different nationalities and disciplinary backgrounds discuss beyond sociodemographic approaches different forms of dispossession that emerge around the problem of access to housing and the population movements. We propose to make two notes. The first one is on the perspective of the critical geographic and its contributions to the field of geography and urbanism, and the second is to discuss the ways in which we can think about the concept of space from the arguments the authors present in this book.

The following notes have the objective to briefly portray the situation of Costarican architecture from the late XX century. Moreover, it contributes significantly to the development of the architectonic culture in our country through the teachings of the Architecture School of the University of Costa Rica and the contributions of multiple professionals within the discipline. Finally, it emphasizes the impact of literature on architecture, heritage and the Costarican identity.

Fear of crime seems to be a constant concern in Costa Rica as well as in Latin America. This anxiety might be changing the urbanization patterns, leading the way to gated communities. Paradoxically, those developments could be feeding some feelings of exclusion and anxiety in their peripheries instead of being a solution to crime among other reasons due to the fragmentation of the city and the lack of provision of public spaces. This article presents some thoughts based on conceptual approaches regarding the spread of gated communities as well as the situation within the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM). It seeksto explore some effects of those residential developments in the adjacent neighborhoods. This work is part of an ongoing research. These initial assessments are based on a fieldwork carried out in Costa Rica from June to December in 2018 as a first stage of research. The methodology approach is through eight study cases, which represent neighborhoods with diverse types of unfulfilled needs (NBI) within the GAM. The cases were selected using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with census’ data; they are located next to gated communities. A walking interview was carried out in each neighborhood with a group of people from the community. Those walks were tracked with a GPS along with an audio recorded. Additionally, there were focus groups, meetings, observations and interviews. Finally, this work shares some preliminary findings, which show feelings of exclusion and residential segregation as well as particular anxieties in women and teenagers.

One notable aspect of Mexico’s colonial historiography is its discursive richness in regards to Indigenous sacrificial rites. These rituals enthused the European imagination and were used to articulate a variety of arguments concerning the evangelization, conquest, and colonization of the New World. If, on one hand, Europeans considered the New World as a lost paradise; on the other, Indigenous sacred space was represented in numerous texts as an infernal space of transgression and idolatry. This article expands on the paradise-hell dichotomy by explaining the various ways in which individuals envisioned ritualistic spaces of the Mesoamerican world during the 16th century. Specifically, I analyze how European and Indigenous individuals articulate three paradigmatic sacred places: the Island of Sacrifices, the ceremonial spaces in Tlaxcala, and the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. While the representation of Indigenous ritual space in Oviedo’s Historia General is shaped as a transgressive space, I argue that texts with an evangelizing aim, like Motolinía’s account, present an ambivalencevis-à-vis Western culture as they point to oppositions as well as parallels in relation to Nahua religion. Finally, I explain that the textual representation of sacred spaces by the Indigenous chronicler, Hernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, significantly differs from the European accounts, given that sacrificial space is articulated as the locus of Mexican identity and memory.

We live in a time in which the concepts that explain the current urban crisis and transition multiplies in a colossal way: creative, divided, compact, sustainable, fragmented city, and so on. This article addresses the proliferation of adjectives regarding the city of the 21st century and inquires if metaphors are useful to a better understanding of the current city. In this article, we investigate the origin, temporality, territoriality, political vision, and ideological orientation of 31 concepts, some of which even questions the use of the concept “city” to explain current urban processes. Several of the analyzed concepts (like other urban models and public policies) have arisen in other geographical and linguistic basins, but they have reached Latin America and are currently in common use for different actors. We present how some concepts have been coined by international organizations to mitigate the effects of neoliberal capitalism in cities, while other concepts are promoted by private companies (Smart cities) or by pro - entrepreneurialism “academics” (Creative cities). Many others also have been produced by critical scholars. For some colleagues, the enormous number and diversity of surnames that we give to the cities are evidence that we do not agree on what is happening with them, while for others this multiplication —far from enriching— impoverishes the urban studies. However, we consider that some analyzed concepts are more than metaphors and constitute very enriching conceptual tools for critical, deneutralized, and repolitized urban studies.

In architectural theory, phenomenology is understood as a movement that investigates architecture as a human experience. Within this movement, this article highlights two discourses: that of Christian Norberg-Schulz and Juhani Pallasmaa for presenting, respectively, a “phenomenology of the exterior” and a “phenomenology of the interior”– architectural domains that are interdependent. These architects-phenomenologists have argued about architecture-place and architecture-body in order to state out their critical viewpoint towards the modern and postmodern movement. The purpose of this article is to understand and confront these discourses by representing a sequentiality of thoughts that (in conclusion) “open the door” to a (new) contemporary phenomenology in architecture. The development of the theme involves the approach of the problems of architecture as an image and architecture of body presence, the latter essential for contemporary phenomenology. Methodologically, this logical follow-up is presented and followed by a contrast of the ideas addressed. It ends with the highlighting of the thoughts of Norberg-Schulz and Pallasmaa that developed the analysis of the notion of the body in the phenomenology of architecture. This expansion promotes and introduces contemporary phenomenology (atmospheric phenomenology as architectural quality) as an effective application in current practice for prominent architects such as Daniel Libeskind, Steven Holl, and Peter Zumthor.

In recent years, the importance of participatory design in architectural, urban or landscape projects has become evident. This article will reflect on the tendency to use participatory design as a requirement and not as a design tool. Therefore, how important is citizen participation in the design processes of public and private space? What new methods and processes can be reproduced within this participatory approach to promote better design practices? The actors in participatory design are examined with attention,emphasizing the role of professionals, users, and others. Subsequently, 4 study cases are analyzed: the urban and landscape project “Place d’Armes” in Yverton, Switzerland; the architectural project of collective housing of social interest Violeta Parra in Iquique of Elemental, directed by Alejandro Aravena; the landscape architecture project “Le Quais de Bordeaux” by Michel Corajoud; and finally, the proposal for environmental protection and landscape urban development for “Finca 3” of the University of Costa Rica, which I directed. When analyzing these 4 cases, the emphasis is on determining who were the actors, the tools and processes, as well as the results of the participation. The methodologies are studied in order to culminate with an analysis on the importance of participatory design, and its impact on the design process of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.

This article is based on collective actions against gated communities in San Miguel, Santo Domingo of Heredia. The main reason for opposition is the impact on aquifers and the use of water by this kind of urbanizations. The purpose of the article is to show how the power relations between economic, political and community actors impact the manner of managing the water. For this reason, different community actors were interviewed, as well as a review of news and institutional documents to narrate and understand the conflict in the area. The information collected shows how gated communities, accompanied by a guarantee from the local government, have allowed public-private alliances for water management, even in a special protection area for this kind of construction. In conclusion, this case is a structural impact of recent changes in land use at provincial level with the passage of coffee plantations to a real estate income, but it found the resistance of community actors who have experienced problems of scarcity and water pollution as well as a tension between market visions in contrast to a use public of water.

This article explores the dimensions of the artistic cliché of the inside of houses in contemporary film –as of the fundamental referent of Rear Window (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock– in: Kika (1993) by Pedro Almodóvar, Animals ferits (2006) by Venutra Pons, El hombre de al lado (2009) by Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat and Dans la maison (2012) by François Ozon. The visions of the home offered by the protagonists themselves are based on two basic variants: one’s own home and the homes of one’s neighbors. This paper sets out to present an interdisciplinary and critic review of interior architecture as of the dynamics of vision in a sample of contemporary films, through focusing on the visual act of the characters surrounding the house. The approach to the house is suggested in two basic dimensions: as intimate territory and as alien territory that is looked at –in an act that necessarily imposes a distance, an objectivation– because it usually mediates a desire. Thus, this paper articulates and confronts interacting operative concepts such as intimacy, voyeurism, error and thalamós, among others. The result produces variations of the perception of the domestic surroundings of the characters in this representative sample which begins from the house as a place beyond a mere physical space.

The article has the main objective of analyzing the formal institutional links of the usage and participation of the public parks in Tibás, planning strategic lines of action of project management in art, culture, education, and recreation. In the article, the author analyzes the relationships and links of people in the groups they constantly participate in and build their own subjectivities. Then, in the project of graduation, the author analyzes with the communal participation of the five districts of the canton the information of the institutions.