The Discourse of Density in Puerto Rico: Towards a socio – material reconceptualization of the urban environment

Abstract

Reconceptualizing density from local architecture entails assuming a series of challenges that are inherent to the production of space itself. On the one hand, it requires questioning the modernist premises under which its discourse has been developed and the consequences of it in the context of Puerto Rico. At the same time, it requires a socio-spatial approach that delves into how it has been defined, lived and disputed. This research seeks to understand how the idea of density manifests itself in the process of creating urban spaces/places. To do so, it traces the development of the discourse of density in Puerto Rico and how its current conception dictates the construction of the city. Under the premise that the discourse of density has fostered a particular way of designing and constructing the city through high-rise buildings for housing, this research bets on a contextualized manifestation of density that allows for a collective reproduction of different ways of inhabiting urban spaces/places. As a result, this work will contribute design strategies that foster collectivity and the conservation of low-rise, high-density urban ecosystems in the face of the continuous expansion of the urban footprint of the archipelago of Puerto Rico.