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

Within current contemporary conditions the profession of Architecture has been diminished and the impact of the discipline in some cases is almost irrelevant to the production of our contemporary world. Compare to other professions, economists, politicians, developers, policy-makers, computer scientists, architecture plays a tiny role in shaping our world, socially, politically and physically. Architecture seems to increasingly matter only to architects and the work that is produced admired for the singularity of the designed object. It is praised by its technical ability or aesthetical features but outside the realm of the majority’s everyday life. In this essay we explain the emergence of “territory” as a field of design praxis as research and praxis by the Landscape Urbanism Master Programme at the Architectural Association and at Groundlab in order to incorporate architecture into a wider framework within current and urgent contemporary conditions and as way to intervene within it through design.

The Natural Infusion Processing Cooperative of the caribbean zone of Costa Rica is an academic project designed for the dynamization and development of the community of Siquirres. The project seeks to rescue the value of the natural environment as a key resource for job creation through new industrial activities in the region. The architecture of the processing cooperative consists of a skin inspired by origami and the rescue of key elements for the bioclimatic management of spaces.

This project explores the blurred interface between the land and the sea known as the littoral zone. The very matter from which this condition is constructed is wet sand or sediment. This is the material from which to begin and envisage alternative design scenarios for the littoral zone of the Mediterranean Sea. Parallel to this, the project envisions ways in which Architect’s agency could be enhanced and design can be a relevant tool for the production of littoral zones. Littoral Negotiations Project is presented here as a speculation of the role of the architect, the implementation of design and the potential outcomes it can have in the generation of alternative scenarios for a specific context and territory within the Mediterranean Sea.

The postulate of the founders of the School of Architecture of the UCR was “learning to learn”. The students were obliged to assimilate this new way of studying. Mariam Pérez, who graduated in 1981, learned that the study of architecture allows the discovery of alternative paths for personal development. In her passage through the School she found strong support from the teachers who helped her solve her uncertainties. After graduating, her various works focused on the subject of planning and housing. She is currently Deputy Minister of Housing.

The investigation this article is founded on is based on the study of the manners of living in boundary areas under the influence of landscape transformations. This was done aiming to identify the systemic feasibility of a space of rural-urban transition, using a conceptual relational model as a methodological tool that would allow to clarify the complexity of the  situation. With such an implementation, it is meant to identify, in a direct and effective manner, the alternative opportunities of intervention in this kind of environment, promoting the creation of sustainable boundary  areas. Because of this, the Quiba-Arborizadora Alta, in Ciudad Bolívar, Bogotá, Colombia, will be described as a particular context of occupation and use of the territory, where, with the use of a semi-quantified  conceptual dynamic model, the relationships established everyday in this edge territory were identified. With this model, it was possible to point out the possible tendency of this complex landscape against induced changes, which allowed to distinguish the actions that would favor substantial  changes for the creation of sustainable boundary areas in big urban  centers, like Ciudad de Bogotá.

This research project has the main goal of establishing and comparing the effectiveness rate, between two specific design strategies for daylight vertical transport and distribution within buildings. To begin with, an experimental domotic sunlight concentrator, was designed, built, and installed, in order to transport daylight through an optic fiber bundle, into an interior room, without any natural light source. In this room, the concentrator´s effectiveness was measured by means of a light  sensor array attached to a multichannel datalogger. Simultaneously, the luminance performance of a traditional skylight shaft was also monitored during a six-month period. Finally, a computer generated simulation (CGS) analysis, was carried out, to establish the relationship between thethree-dimensional proportions of light shafts, and the light loss rate experienced inside the architectural space. In terms of results, the optic fiber daylight system didn’t reach the skylight´s effectiveness, however, it demonstrated a relatively more uniform and constant behavior. The centralidea of this two-phased procedure, was to use a validated comparison criteria such as the Daylight Factor (DF%) or Daylight Autonomy Factor (DA) and other complementary metrics, to determine a basic ratio between the lighting effectiveness of both techniques, and establish a series of brief recommendations about the optimum design of each system type.

The change of scale of the political-economic processes imposed by globalization are increasingly orienting, in Europe, Asia and Latin America, the territorial planning practises towards the implementation of regional and sub-regional development strategies. “Regionalization” is a pending issue in Ecuador’s political agenda and, although the current Constitution establishes that the  country is organized territorially in regions, provinces, cantons and rural parishes, equitable development, autonomy and decentralization of the different government levels remain an objective to achieve. This article supports this debate by investigating the spatial approach and the territorial views that guided the regionalization proposals in Ecuador between 1952 and 1982. To this end, valuable documents (studies, plans and projects) carried out by the JUNAPLA and the CREA have been analyzed: unique attempts of Regional Planning carried out in the country, especially in the Center-South Region.

The concept of childhood has gained strength since the enactment of the rights of children. Infants went from being considered subjects to protection of the State to be subjects of rights. In Colombia, the 1991 Constitution, in the Article 44, in addition to recognizing the rights of children, they are given the status of prevalence over others. With two decades passed, and even earlier, there are numerous policies and actions promoted in the country. In this context, it is particularly important to analyze what happened in Bogotá, a city that is the political capital. It receives the impact of  migration associated with displacement, product of the internal armed conflict, and it significantlypresents the phenomenon of informal settlements. What has happened to the children who live there? Are the conditions of their habitat related to their effective access to their rights? What is done from the territorial planning and housing policies to guarantee the rights of children? That is the reflection proposed in this article.

Henri Lefebvre’s theory about urban life is based on the pivotal opposition between the space which is lived by those who use it or dream about it, and the abstract space that city technocrats would like to organize –even if they are rarely aware of the extent to which their “creativity” is subjected to private or institutional interests. Behind this hypothetical space in which city planners and architects work is pure ideology, the ghost that covers and disguises real social relations of production. Facing -or even ignoring- that merely theoretical spatial order of the “experts”, cities experience a constant and imminent activity that has to be understood as the apotheosis or essence of social relations. The urban is characterized by an intrinsic dynamism, always spun by developments and occurrences on which the “experts” implement plans and projects, even if they really ignore its real character - perhaps, this is the reason why they constantly try to deny it.

This essay is an approach to the values of the Engineering Faculty Building in the Campus Rodrigo Facio Brenes of the University of Costa Rica for its consideration as a historical and architectural heritage. The history of the building is reviewed as well as its possible values, which are considered in this essay as underestimated. In this work the building is studied as a symbol, as a complex, as an object of design, as a historical document, as a public space, and as an art piece, using concepts from Politics, History, Architecture and Ideology. The principles of Semiotics are applied to the building, as this is considered as a language that must be analyzed and interpreted.