Footprints of a Forgotten CityThe revitalization of San José's heritage architecture and its urban fabric.

Abstract

The thesis “Footprints of a Forgotten City” is a research within the field of Adaptive Reuse. It seeks to understand the current situation of urban development in the city of San José, Costa Rica, and the potential historic and heritage buildings offer as a means to revitalizing and regenerating its urban fabric.

The methodology for the research combines different objective and subjective references through literature studies, case studies and research by design.

The first chapter introduces the city of San José and its identity which is further developed in the second chapter, analyzing its urban development history and its current state. Through the investigations and discoveries of the third chapter, the master project introduces a reference case as a result. The adaptive reuse of the La Alhambra building poses subject to the adjacent master project in chapter four as an example of the application of the positive findings of this research. The design examples show the findings at the time of publication.