LDB Arquitectura
Texts
Columns and articles by Luis Diego Barahona on cities, public space, housing and architecture, published in Costa Rica and abroad since 1999. Each card keeps the original title and links to the full text in Spanish.
-
Alejandro Aravena, ganador del premio Pritzker, la arquitectura amplificada
Alejandro Aravena broadened the scope of architecture through incremental housing.
-
Concreto conciliado
The Fátima Church in Los Yoses applies the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
-
Repensar la ciudad desde los sistemas de acupunturas urbanas
A mixed, compact city is built on top of the existing city.
-
Piezas arquitectónicas inspiradas en el rock ofrecen experiencias únicas
Hendrix, Gehry and Seattle lead to a question about Costa Rica’s railway lands.
-
Vacío irradiado. Casa Altamira
Casa Altamira in Ciudad Colón organizes its spaces with walls that radiate from the entrance hall.
-
Toyo Ito, arquitecto universal
Column on the work of Japanese architect Toyo Ito, winner of the 2013 Pritzker Prize.
-
Parqueos amistosos con la ciudad
A parking lot is an urban plot that can also hold shops, services and housing.
-
Pedro Ramírez, un maestro de la arquitectura
The architect of the Azteca Stadium and of the Presidential House of Costa Rica.
-
Tras los juegos, Londres continúa
London 2012 left an urban renewal plan for the east of the city.
-
El navegante rebelde
Renzo Piano works from the studio to the building site and reaches a rural school in Mora.
-
Una celebración que fluye
Rivers can become public space corridors if they are cleaned and lined with footpaths and bike lanes.
-
Paisajes ensamblados por la luz
Víctor Cañas joins architecture and landscape through light.
-
Abran cancha a los ejercicios urbanos
Neighborhood sports courts are a matter of public health and social cohesion.
-
Recintos para la eternidad
A tour of Olympic stadiums and what each one brought to architecture.
-
Sede de los Museos del BCCR
The Central Bank Museums and the Plaza de la Cultura are the most significant urban work of the 20th century in Costa Rica.
-
La ciudad, un cambio de la naturaleza
Paulo Mendes da Rocha sees architecture as a transformation of nature.
-
Enormes libros abiertos
Buildings can be open books that convey the culture of a society.
-
Por el buen camino
Bike lanes work as a network and not as isolated stretches.
-
Rigurosidad manifiesta
Álvaro Siza’s Iberê Camargo Foundation is a rigorous architectural manifesto.
-
Sombras para encontrarse
In the tropics, shade is the basis of public space.
-
Para sentarnos juntos
A symbolic parliament belongs in a civic center and not in an office park.
-
Urbanismo social
Medellín and the 2010 Ibero-American Biennial as an example of architecture for social integration.
-
Intensidad hilvanada
Rolando Barahona’s work seeks balance with nature and the happiness of those who live in it.
-
Límites etéreos
Dematerialization blurs the limits between inside and outside.
-
La belleza de los inicios puros
Pure forms and good beginnings teach how to build without excess.
-
Íntimo respeto
The front garden is a green threshold that the house offers to the sidewalk.
-
Plan de Renovación del Barrio Los Yoses
The plan is organized as a system of 25 overlapping urban acupunctures.
-
A fuego lento
The kitchen has been the heart of the home and a meeting place since the days of the open hearth.
-
Exposiciones maestras
Temporary pavilions teach us to think about the city and to rethink our own architecture.
-
Armonía en full color
Color in architecture can extend the landscape, create contrast or highlight elements.
-
Umbrales abiertos
Urban gates mark the transition between the outside and the inside of cities.
-
Tictac suizo
Swiss architecture stands out for its constructive rigor and its command of the craft.
-
Paz blanca, pax romana
Richard Meier’s Ara Pacis Museum protects the altar of Augustus inside a bright white building.
-
Pieles sugerentes
Facades are skins that connect a building with its context, nature and climate.
-
Diálogos urbanos
The city needs buildings that complement each other more than isolated landmarks.
-
La vivienda protegida
The middle class needs its own housing policy, distinct from social housing and from the open market.
-
Claridad continua
Daylight reveals space, brings out textures and defines the color of buildings.
-
Atmósferas en ladrillo
Clay brick has built masterpieces from the ziggurats of Mesopotamia to Bogotá.
-
Vida fluvial
Cemeteries are public spaces open to the sky and often linked to rivers.
-
Territorios lúdicos
One in five people in Costa Rica is a child.
-
Verde natura, rojo estructura
The parks of Costa Rica can be read in three groups that form a single system.
-
Barrio con planos
The value of a neighborhood lies in its houses, streets and trees as a whole more than in a single building.
-
Mixtura del lugar
Markets are covered public spaces where society mixes.
-
Concreto expuesto
Concrete works can be valued for their plasticity, permanence and structural daring.
-
Gran país, bellos ejemplos
Brazil has built landmark museums with Oscar Niemeyer, Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Lina Bo Bardi.
-
Arquitectura y género. Entrevista a Zaida Muxí
Gender refers to the roles that society assigns and not to sex.
-
Escenarios espectaculares
A stadium can be a lively urban stage and not just an object to admire.
-
Campus en equilibrio
The Rodrigo Facio university campus gives priority to pedestrians over cars.
-
Cubo idílico
Casa Poli is a concrete cube facing the sea on the Coliumo peninsula in Chile.
-
Entrañas y paisajes
Three modern houses in Rio de Janeiro, Guanacaste and Barcelona rooted in their landscape.
-
Bueno, pero ¿cuál es la diferencia?
Airports, commercial museums, shopping malls and hotels repeat the same spaces all over the world.
-
La vivienda como esencia. Quinto Congreso Líneas
The fifth Líneas Congress and housing as the piece that builds the city.
-
Foco ibérico, faro mediterráneo
Madrid and Barcelona build their future on two different urban models.
-
Víctor Cañas, miembro de la AIA
A Costa Rican architect in the AIA College of Fellows.
-
Bellos contenedores sociales
The libraries of Bogotá, Medellín and Mexico City regenerate neighborhoods and create public space.
-
Otro modo de abrir el cielo
The contemporary tower is being rethought with new types, structures and facades adapted to climate.
-
Bilbao mira la ría
The regeneration of Bilbao rests on its estuary more than on the Guggenheim Museum.
-
Embajada con corazón arbolado
A tree-filled courtyard 24 meters across organizes the Mexican Embassy in Guatemala.
-
Un mundo en una manzana
A mixed-use block can work as a small city.
-
OMA, arquitectura de las culturas
Rem Koolhaas, AMO and a conversation with Oliver Schütte on architecture and culture.
-
Construir lo elemental
The Elemental competition sought professionals able to solve very low-cost housing in Chile.
-
Microurbanismo a concurso
Architecture competitions make it possible to choose the best design for each work.
-
Hacia un ecourbanismo
The city belongs to its residents and they are the ones who decide how to change it.
-
Efecto Marriott
When a hotel becomes a style and the style degrades in the city.
-
Replantear lo nuestro
Knowing our own heritage lets us blend the local with new ideas without losing identity.
-
Arquitectura en el trópico
Housing in Costa Rica should be designed with bioclimatic criteria.
-
Adaptación a lo ajeno
Costa Rican architecture has absorbed influences from pre-Columbian times to today’s avant-gardes.
-
Ciudad, ¿regalo o creación?
The city is not received as a gift. It is built by everyone.
Books, press and the office
Luis Diego’s two books gather the office’s work and the idea of urban acupuncture. What other media have published about the office is in Press.