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San José : The Passages of The Gran Área Metropolitana

Bounded on the north by the Torres river and on the south by the river Maria Aguilar, developed initially in a grid structure, typical of colonial American cities, the capital of Costa Rica today has serious problems of connectivity because of anaccelerated and disordered urban growth, natural boundaries (rivers and mountain) and major road and rail infrastructures.

After an urban design workshop organized in the first Semester of 2015 by the Latina University, the College of Architects of Costa Rica, with the support of public and private universities and local governments, is preparing a “Passages” competition for architecture students on different sites of the Gran Área Metropolitana.

Soon more “information on the website, launch of the competition late 2015.

Competition in Preparation

The College of Architects of Costa Rica, with the support of public and private universities and local governments, is organizing a competition for architecture students on different sites of the GAM.

The challenge is to propose innovative ideas to solve the problems of mobility and improve and qualify the public space, generating urban connectors on sites currently under definition. The projects should propose intervention strategies that enable rapid implementation and use to present to local governments.

Starting late 2015.

Coordinator: Carlos Laborda, architect, consultant on intervention in urban spaces, professor at the Latina University

Pilot Workshop

Ahead of the competition, the students of the  Latina University were familiarized with the theme passages in the context of an urban project workshop in the first quarter 2015. Each of the 6 groups had to present the context, and the issues of his study site, to design a project that enable connexion between urban spaces of various identities, and finally to develop the presentation of an urban public space (street, square, park …).

The project of Carlos Gómez and Marvin Segura proposes a connector on an existing road that connects three counties in the southeast of the capital: San Francisco de Dos Rios, Curridabat and San Antonio de Desamparados. The two students have designed five strategic points of intervention with public spaces of different characteristics.

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