Design study for an office extension of the Center for Rural Development (CDR).
In the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica, it already is a common practice to informally reuse residential buildings for office spaces or to add an area of practice within the residential environment, thus creating work & live conditions in one single place. Most of the informal and sometimes temporary or makeshift constructions result in an overall fragmented image of the city without any concern towards architectural integration.
This project proposes a formalized office extension in San Pedro, east of the central districts of San José. Besides the architectural modifications that are proposed by the bioclimatic building design, we put an emphasis on densification within a spacially fragmented and socially segregated urban environment. We promote to combine functions and maximize the legally possible built program in order to approach a more inclusive and multifunctional city.
Credit
A Company (Oliver Schütte with Ronald Carvajal).
Structural Engineering: Carla Ortiz.
San José, Costa Rica, 2009.