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

This article offers a posthumous honor for public architecture of the Costa Rican capital, San José, as a national model of a city. The study of the discussion contained in certain legislative acts around the convenience to give the country a National Civic Center, [do not] favors the understanding of an emerging Urban Planning before 1970’s, the “legal” decade for the Urban Law. By using the analogy of the requiem, the History of Urban Law demands the futility of legal solutions to save valuable buildings that were born in the formation of the National State, during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Costa Rica ́s quest for modernity claims for new ways where Law can understand Urban Heritage.  

Even though the concept of gentrification was used in the 1960s, it is until the development of the theories by Smith and Ley, at the end of the 1970s, that several empirical works in the Anglo-Saxon world are started. In Latin America, the empirical works are developed, in a remarkable way, since the first decade of the 21st century. Several theories that explain the late conduction of empirical works about gentrification in Latin American cities are discussed, while showing the most important critics that have been made about the use of this concept. Finally, some characteristics of the gentrification processes in this region are reviewed.

El presente número de RevistArquis contiene doce textos que abordan temas relacionados con las dinámicas arquitectónicas, urbanas y territoriales, tanto históricas como contemporáneas. A saber, un artículo de investigación, siete ensayos, dos entrevistas y dos reseñas de proyecto  arquitectónico. En esta, como en otras ocasiones, nos sentimos complacidos de que los aportes  provengan de personas dedicadas no solamente a la Arquitectura, sino también a la Arqueología, el Urbanismo, la Geografía y la Planifiación, lo que en definitiva enriquece el contenido de la  publicación. Se abre con el artículo de investigación “La plaza hispanoamericana Siglos: XVI, XVII y XVIII. Caso de estudio como análisis tipológico” de Natalia Correal. El escrito se concentra en caracterizar la  plaza como un “tipo” y en señalar sus variables (forma, ubicación, usos y arquitectura a su  alrededor). Precisamente muestra la relevancia de los estudios diacrónicos y comparativos de los  centros urbanos. Luego de este escrito, y de manera sucesiva, aparecen ocho ensayos. “Morfología y regulación urbana en la transformación de la ciudad. El caso de la Gran Área  Metropolitana de Costa Rica”, de Helga von Breymann, aborda la forma urbana y las  consecuencias que el modelo de crecimiento ha tenido en la estructura física de la ciudad. Sabrine Acosta, en “Revisión epistemológica de nuevas tipologías urbanas para la identificación  de mini ciudades en América Central”, discute, por medio de una discusión bibliográfica amplia, la emergencia de las mini ciudades tanto en Costa Rica como en Guatemala. “El papel de la normativa urbana en el desarrollo turístico y la protección del ambiente”, propuesto por Roy Allan Jiménez, cuestiona la efectividad de la legislación que se ocupa de la  conservación de los recursos naturales frente al desarrollo turístico en la región Chorotega, en el  pacífico costarricense. Por su parte, Oswaldo Mesías en “Elementos conceptuales de la  globalización para la inclusión del riesgo en la planificación regional” presenta algunas nociones  que ayudan a definir la organización de las áreas vulnerables frente a amenazas naturales, en la actual coyuntura de globalización económica transforma la planificación territorial. Andrés Jiménez discute la llegada del primer mall al país y desarrolla un análisis de la evolución espacio-temporal que han tenido estas infraestructuras en “Mall-deando la ciudad: 24 años de  territorialización de los malls en Costa Rica”. Por su parte, “Conceptos, evidencia y realidad. El  caso del “encierro” 1 del sitio arqueológico Nuevo Corintio (L-72NC), Guápiles, Limón”, de Manuel Castillo, ahonda en la relación entre el lenguaje, la ciencia y la arquitectura, mediante el análisis y la deconstrucción de un término referido a un espacio arquitectónico precolombino. “La habitabilidad y la transdisciplinariedad”, escrito por Mónica Espinosa, aborda el espacio   habitado y las acciones propias de las personas por medio de costumbres, ritos, narrativas,   huellas de memorias, significantes, significados y objetos que los acompañan. Aparecen dos entrevistas. Una realizada por Laura Solano a Luis Alberto Salinas sobre los procesos de gentrificación en Ciudad México. Otra realizada por Jorge Grané a Jorge Bertheau en donde se aborda la historia de la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad de Costa Rica. Y, por  último, dos reseñas. Una del proyecto “Refugio Pavón”, de Lorena Troncoso, que resalta el uso de la madera para la creación de espacios de alta calidez en la comuna de Pinto, región de  Ñuble, Chile. Y “Termas de la Garita” que enfatiza, dentro de su programa arquitectónico, las  condiciones interiores de confort en un clima cálido-húmedo, el manejo plástico e iluminación del espacio interior. Para finalizar esta presentación, desde RevistArquis les invitamos a participar de la lectura de este duodécimo ejemplar y, además, a participar en la divulgación del mismo.

The study on the urban form and the processes of transformation of cities has allowed a deeper knowledge of the nature of these urban conformations. In parallel, the various urban problems have led to a better understanding of how the growth model followed has shaped the physical structure of the cities, and the quality of life of its inhabitants. This essay is framed within this line of research, focusing on a Latin-American case study. It exposes the poor territorial management effects, as well as the weak execution of the planning instruments that have shaped the urban form and the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica.

The present work delves into the relationship between language, science, and architecture, through the analysis and deconstruction of a term referring to a pre-Columbian architectural space called “encierro” in the archaeological site Nuevo  Corinto (L-72NC). It will be explained how this implies not only a conceptual change, but also a change in the understanding of the social reality that happened in this space.

In the frame of Academic Exchange at the National Autonomous University of Mexico during 2016-2017 period, the researcher Dr. Luis Salinas was  interviewed by Laura Solano, student of the Program Licenciatura en  Arquitectura of the University of Costa Rica. The interview was held in March 2017 at the UNAM and it focuses on the gentrification processes in Mexico City.

The territorialisation of malls in Costa Rica began in 1993 with the inauguration of Multiplaza Escazú in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica. From 1993 to 2017 a total of 14 malls were built. In this article, a route across the main characteristics of malls is made; the arrival of the first mall to the country is characterized and an analysis of the space-time evolution that these infrastructures have had in the GAM is developed. Finally some of the complaints and citizen responses that have been given to the construction of a mall are reviewed.

Jorge Bertheau built his brick house in Escazú, 35 years ago. He studied Architecture in Mexico and, upon his return, worked in Rafael “Felo” García’s design studio with whom he established a deep friendship. Later, Edgar Brenes joined them and together they initiated of founding the School of Architecture, which had little support from the university authorities. With a scholarship offered by England, Jorge  Bertheau and Felo García went there to learn and understand study programs. Later on Edgar Brenes joined them. Upon his return, in 1971, the School was opened, with the “learning to learn” slogan. The new School had detractors and followers. Among the latter was the figure of Engineer Walter Sagot. Bertheau describes the struggle for the survival of the School as “the heroic  moment”, which later diluted with other people and other ideas. Many teachers approached, in the beginning, with  enthusiasm, to support the mission of the School and thus the first Costa Rican architects graduated with success.

This paper approaches habitability, living space and a house dweller’s own actions. These three elements interact dynamically and continually in life’s different  moments. The purpose is to reflect on space habitability adding to architectural  concepts psychological, social and anthropological elements that could enhance quality of life and health for the city dweller. Several perceptual, social, institutional  and cultural aspects that help build identity and strengthen the personal and group being that are expressed in uses, rites, narratives, memories, signifiers, meanings and their accompanying objects are explored. Keywords: architecture, inhabitant, living space, living, discourse, interaction  

Refugio Pavón, by the architect Lorena Troncoso Valencia, located in the municipality of Pinto, region of Ñuble - Chile, is located in a small area without trees in the middle of the forest, allowing a  greater sunny and a view of the refuge. It has lush vegetation at the sides and a large wall of natural stone in the background. The use of wood predominates in all its architectural component  creating spaces of a high sensation of warmth.