Within the lines of work of the office, the Cueva de Luz project was designed ad honorem, where Entre Nos Atelier since 2011 becomes a "strategic partner" of the Carpio community and the SIFAIS foundation, (Sistema Integral Critical Training for Social Inclusion) a private non-profit initiative that promotes self-improvement and social integration through teaching and learning an artistic skill, a sport, or a technique in marginal communities.
During its development process, a network of community leaders, governmental and non-governmental organizations and private companies has been strengthened, generating a proven dynamic where more than 130 workshops taught by volunteers are hosted and which also proposes new design challenges. Cueva de Luz is one of those particular projects, which are not born from architecture but from the genuine needs of its users. However, if architecture is given a fundamental role to guarantee the future of the generations to come, hosting a community support space in the largest informal settlement in San José. The importance of the program and the urban requalification from this, is formalized in the imprint of this wooden building, the largest in the region, in one of the most socially vulnerable areas of the greater metropolitan area, and it is possible to replicate this model in other parts of the country.
Cueva de Luz comprises in 1000m2 two ships with four floors projected on the open floor. Its footprint of approximately 250m2 preserves a square-like space or recreational area at ground level, which in turn can serve as an amphitheater or exhibition hall and administrative areas. The second, third, and fourth floors contain multifunctional workshop spaces that can be privatized when required with lightweight partitions and acoustic panels. Between the 2 naves there is a system of ramps and stairs that serves as a gallery and guarantee universal accessibility at all levels.
The Carpio Integration and Culture Center was created with the aim of promoting a space for multi-way learning where all the participants are beneficiaries of the process: both those who learn and those who teach; those who give, like those who receive; face-to-face assistants as their immediate relatives. That is why a precarious person, in one of the supposedly most “dangerous” places in San José known as the “Cueva del Sapo”, has become the “Cueva de luz” thanks to the contribution of all the people involved inside and outside. of the community.
Originally as a space for social transformation, SIFAIS worked in a building with a winery that barely had the minimum conditions to operate. It is there that Entre Nos Atelier offers to design new spaces that will facilitate the development of activities based on the needs of its users, the foundation, environmental restrictions and limited available resources. Initially it is projected on the original property, however this would have disabled the existing activities for several months. In this sense, in 2013 the SIFAIS Foundation obtained an adjacent property as a loan granted by the IMAS (Mixed Institute of Social Aid) to project another proposal and that the activities that were being consolidated did not stop.
The projection of spaces was a design process with the participation of the key actors in the project. The most important guidelines delimited budget restrictions, multifunctional areas, and efficient circulations that would facilitate a fluid interaction between the different spaces, levels, and immediate surroundings.Working on the property given in loan, the 2 ships are projected with the intermediate circulation space. Preliminarily, a concrete and metal structure had been contemplated that allowed the first modulation and organization schemes. However, the budget limitations required rethinking the structural system that until now was only enough to build the primary structure without basic closings.
In this sense, wood emerges as a constructive alternative so that the entire project could be completed with the same budget. Thanks to the technical support of the Xilo Group led by the Engineer Juan Tuk and the architect Adolfo Mejía, the work is rethought. In the change, a system of concrete slabs and columns was transferred to a system of braced supporting frames, repeated in series every 80 centimeters. The frames reduced the total load of the project, giving it the necessary elasticity to withstand its use, seismic resistance and fire resistance. Also the wood providing its cozy quality in the spaces, where the knots of union between beams and columns of laminated wood do not require expensive metal fittings or bolts, but rather a specialized screw system for wood.
All of the above allowing the challenge and setting a precedent for the construction of vertical buildings in laminated wood. In other words, a building with state-of-the-art technology, unique in the region located in a marginal sector of the city. Among the spatial qualities of the project, the use of an atrium-type transition space between the 2 main bodies stands out, containing the circulations and facilitating natural lighting. The vertical perimeter envelope of the warehouses takes the serial column system to incorporate a series of wooden grille-type vents and folding panels that facilitate the entry of the breezes and natural lighting required in high-traffic areas, uses and activities. . Also in a complementary way, a series of galvanized iron mesh enclosures are incorporated that do not hinder the porosity of the envelope and provide the necessary security.
The mesh is widely explored in different functional and formal solutions of the building given its versatility, easy installation and affordable cost. The project, due to its verticality as it is traveled, gradually reveals a series of views and frames of the immediate environment; as a kind of viewpoint that revalues its context and serves as a catalyst for new alternatives and experiences of spatial empowerment on the site. The work also has the particularity that it is possible to move 100% since, being with bolted joints, they can be removed from the wood and leave the elements intact to be reassembled elsewhere. This issue of reuse of the work in the event of changes in use or urban reconfiguration is a very important contribution to the sustainability principles that the project manages.
The sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere is another very relevant factor in construction. In this building, only in the primary structure, 56,000 Kgs of preserved wood were used, with which an equivalent of 224,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the main actor in global climate change, was extracted. Another feature of the work is the low impact on the environment, as it does not require complex lifting systems for the elements and transportation within a disorganized and chaotic urban environment that did not allow the passage of heavy or large trucks.
Cueva de luz is a project that questions the limits of urban development in our cities. It is a reflection that citizen empowerment and the sum of public and private wills can go beyond the pre-established restrictions by development "codes" that often contradict common sense and community aspirations. It is a project that proposes the social construction of the habitat from a viable, manageable and accessible scale within the complexity of the city. As urban acupuncture, it shows a process of user appropriation; the project had not yet been completed and was already being used when work conditions permitted. In addition to the titanic work of the SIFAIS foundation to raise funds, it was also a challenge for Entre Nos to manage the donation of engineering design, materials and technical solutions. The project has triggered a series of initiatives and collateral interventions that are causing urban regeneration from the root of human relations and from active citizenship.
