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

During the twentieth century in Costa Rica, spatial planning and environmental policies, as well as their implementation tools, proved they have been inefficient or insufficient to avoid, or at least, to reduce, the negative impacts produced over the environment by the multiple activities developed by humans. However, during the past two decades -mainly, since article 50 of the Constitution was modified in 1994, enabling the right to enjoy an ecologically balanced and wholesome environment- we can find legislative, administrative and communitarian efforts, looking forward to an adequate harmony amid human activities, environmental protection and cities organized development. Without a doubt, the environmental factor has acquired an increasing relevance in the country during the last twenty years. This has been materialized by the enactment of laws and bylaws, trying to achieve not only environmental protection, but also support - direct or indirectly - the absence of urbanistic laws and regulations.To determine with accurate precision, from a legal perspective, the incidence of the environmental factor in spatial and urban planning, through the mentioned laws and bylaws, the public policies and their implementation tools, is the purpose of this paper; and also, to offer an analysis about the administrative and judicial decisions, that may allow the identification of the results - positive or not- over the Public Administrations and the citizens. The later, with the aim to recognize their effects, and define towards the future, which bearings may and must be improved. This in order to conquer a social economic cohesion and a plain sustainable development that will positively affect citizens’ quality of life.

In the European context of economic, social and environmental crisis, we find the Spanish case where its context is hardly worse, as consequences of an economic model based on real estate market. From this point the European Union’s commitment advocates the Integrated Urban Regeneration framed in the overall context of the strategy for Integrated Sustainable Urban Development (MHAP, 2015). Moreover, both strategies establish some continuity with the line of area-based urban interventions with integrated approach promoted by European programs and targeted on disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Equally the vision of the city as a whole and the necessary balance between its parts has been incorporated to them. This last issue, treated so far in a context with falling interest in planning, requires a new analysis framework to assess the actions taken and also to date and serve as a basis for developing new proposals.Therefore, it is considered the urgency in defining a new model of urban rehabilitation in Spain, which integrates sectoral policies and the (real) participation of all actors, so that, the paper will be based on the need of the neighbourhood’s integration into the city. It is also purposed a possible base of analysis for such integration, which might improve or get over the current urban policy interventions in neighbourhoods.

This paper analyzes the opportunities of Costa Rica to implement planning strategies for large urban sectors. This kind of planning takes place between municipal planning (local government) and specific (urban) projects, in which case, replaces the quite known but difficult to apply “master plan”. The current patterns of urban development and real estate in Costa Rica, prevent an integrated approach on large urban sectors. The lack of commercial advantages of the traditional urban development versus the gated community has provoked that large sectors of the city have been intervened as closed environments. The consequences of this very profitable and institutionalized practiceare the overload on existing urban areas and the deficit of public facilities, which are necessary for an adequate urban growth. The urban renewal concept, unexplored but present in Costa Rican urban regulations, sets up the ground rules for the approach to large urban areas, also known as partial plans. 

The Article 89 of the Politic Constitution of Costa Rica is based on a Social State, not a Cultural State of Law. Culture refers to as a political and not a legal right, subject to protection, which seems to belittle the legal interests. In this line, the constitutional provision reflects the absence of a minimum conceptual core around heritage, whose protection is then diffused. This omission involves the reduction of an architectural historical value to an artistic one, limiting cultural interest in general and the architectural, specifically. In order to facilitate understanding of the (dark) regime tutelary existing provisions of the Law of Historical Heritage Architectural Nº7555 (1995) and Regulations (2005), the article reviews the legal concept of heritage in two directions: first, the constitutionalization of heritage cultural property (section A); second, the objectification of culture in general, and the historical architecture in particular, in the light of legal interest (section B). This examination allows delineate an integrative concept of cultural heritage and within this, the architectural history; which ultimately could favor their protection.

The city and what is understood as its reality, is a complex and endless dynamic of territorial production between its imaginary dimension (memory, ideas, senses, emotions, etc.), empirical dimension (buildings, infrastructure, events), and how its citizens, civil society and those in power, amalgamate the different variables that compose it to symbolize and constantly build it (social dimension). Given this premise, this article outlines the media construction of the territory from the phenomenon of social representations “Barrios del Sur” as an urban issue, a dominant imaginary that designates the south part of Casco Central (Central Town: mainly Hospital and Catedral districts), in San José, Costa Rica, under negative assumptions and generalizations; and its profound impact on the city production in terms of territorial organization (location of fears and guilts in the city), urban planning, design, investment, and life.

Resumen La obra de Miguel Braceli muestra una reflexión sobre el espacio que trasciende las fronteras de lo que usualmente se entiende como espacio arquitectónico. El registro fotográfico de las instalaciones efímeras que se incluye en esta reseña revela un trabajo sobre el territorio y el paisaje que desmonta los principios de estabilidad, permanencia y robustez que se le asocian al quehacer arquitectónico. En este sentido, la obra de Miguel Braceli se considera relevante para la discusión sobre a la dimensión temporal del espacio y las funciones lúdicas y experimentales de este tipo de proyecto sobre el espacio. AbstractThe work of Miguel Braceli demonstrates a consideration about space that transcends the boundaries of what is usually understood as architectural space. The photographic record of ephemeral installations included in this review reveals a work about the territory and landscape that dismantles the principles of stability, permanence and robustness that are associated with the architectural work. In this sense, the work of Miguel Braceli is considered relevant to the discussion around the temporal dimension of space and playful and experimental features of this type of project on space.

The purpose of this review article is to discuss a broaden notion of urban void, in the context of urban sprawl and the urgent need for sustainable land management. To draw a picture about the topic of urban voids, this essay has been divided into two sections. The first part presents a number of concepts that justify a global response of reclaiming urban voids. The second section contains a compilation of case studies of urban void management, whose viability has been possible because innovative urban legislation tools. In the Costa Rican context, where the little discussion about urban voids remain housed in negative urban imaginary, it is important to make visible experiences where its negative meaning has been overcome.

This paper covers the origin, development and perspectives pertaining to the notion of urban matters, and urban planning. Also, on this topic will carry out a time-space analysis of the notions that have enjoyed more relevance in the history within this field of study. Finally, the policy immersed therein and their proper use, are discussed.

Resumen Este es el resumen de una tesis presentada en el 2015 para optar al grado de Magister Scientiae en Historia Aplicada en la Universidad Nacional. Es una investigación de Historia Urbana sobre la transformación espacial del Distrito Central de Barva en el período 1945-2014, producto de los cambios en su población. Se considera la ciudad un elemento sígnico que revela los pensamientos que han primado en su modelaje urbano y que se manifiestan en la apropiación de los espacios arquitectónicos. El objetivo del estudio es explicar la morfología social y urbana como el resultado de la interacción de actores sociales y dilucidar su procedencia; la metodología empleada incluyó la revisión documental de fuentes diversas (fotografías, censos, mapas, actas, crónicas, españolas) y un trabajo de campo (observaciones no participantes y entrevistas) que fueron sistematizados en sinopsis, cuadros y mapas conceptuales. Tras el análisis de los resultados se descubrió que: a) Barva se ha apreciado como un pueblo agropecuario e indígena desde el período de la colonia, b) los cambios en la población han provocado reacciones en los habitantes que se expresan en prácticas urbanas particulares, c) la valoración urbana está asociada a representaciones sociales devenidas del uso cotidiano de los espacios y de antiguas creencias y d) el desarrollo territorial y el paisaje urbano son expresiones del comportamiento social en diferentes coyunturas. Se concluye que el Distrito Central de Barva ha cambiado porque su población lo ha hecho y por tanto los procesos de construcción identitarios se han modificado.Abstract This is the summary of a thesis presented in 2015 for the degree of Master of Science in Applied History at the National University. It is an investigation of the urban history of the spatial transformation of the Central District of Barva in the period from 1945 to 2014, as a result of changes in its population. The city is treated as a symbolic element that reveals the thoughts that have prevailed in its urban modeling and manifested in the appropriation of architectural spaces. The aim of the study is to explain the social and urban morphology as consequence of the interaction of social actors and elucidate its origin; the methodology used included the review of documents from various sources (photographs, censuses, maps, records, Spanish chronicles) and fieldwork (nonparticipant observations and interviews) that were systematized in synopsis, tables and conceptual maps. After analysis of the results it was found that: a) Barva has been appreciated as an agricultural and indigenous place since the period of the Colony; b) changes in the population have provoked reactions in people who have particular urban practices; c) urban assessment is associated with social representations that come from uses of everyday spaces and ancient beliefs and d) territorial development and urban landscape are expressions of social behavior in different situations. It is concluded that the Central District of Barva has changed because its population has changed and, therefore, identity construction processes have been modified.

Resumen La ciudad debe ser reconocida como parte de la naturaleza y diseñada, en consecuencia, comprendiendo las conexiones entre paisaje y ciudad que son funcionales, sostenibles, significantes y poseedores de arte y belleza. El paisaje urbano se constituye de formas que conjugan naturaleza, historia y cultura, poniendo en valor la complejidad de variables teóricas y prácticas que implican biodiversidad, procesos eco sistémicos y diversas actividades humanas en el tiempo. En ese contexto, una de las coordenadas especialmente valiosas y presentes en el paisaje urbano de muchas de las ciudades de Chile se construye a partir del trazado que ha hecho el agua. Entonces, reconocer el paisaje urbano como una relación de diseño sobre el paisaje hídrico de soporte, resulta indispensable para entender la ciudad y sus dinámicas de transformación como un todo fluido y en movimiento. Este trabajo busca proponer un sustrato teórico, un imaginario práctico y una metodología posible para la configuración de paisajes hídricos urbanos para aportar en la discusión de cómo enfrentaremos la condición hídrica en nuestras ciudades contemporáneas en el marco del quinto paradigma de la urbanización en conjunto con el enfoque de ciudades sensibles al agua. AbstractThe city should be recognized as part of nature and, consequently, be designed with an understanding of the relationships between the landscape which are functional, sustainable, meaningful, and possess art and beauty. The urban landscape is composed of forms which interplay nature, history and culture, emphasizing the complexity of theoretical and practical variables associated with bio-diversity, ecosystemic processes, and diverse human activities over time. In this context, one especially valuable dimension present in many Chliean cities can be constructed on the basis of the course taken by water. The recognition of urban landscape as a relationship between its design and its supporting hydric landscape is indispensable for understanding the city and the dynamics of its transformation as a fluid in movement. This article seeks to propose a possible theoretical, practical and methodological basis for comprehending the configuration of urban hydric landscapes in contemporary cities in the framework of the fifth paradigm of urbanization focused on water sensitive cities.