Theorical analysis to explain the slow acceptance of the recent residential vertical trends in San José, Costa Rica

Abstract

This article aims to evaluate the emergence and evolution of the Costa Rican real estate market in order to unravel the context of the strong bond with the land and hence the slow acceptance of new residential vertical trends. The methodology consists of annual fieldworks between 2011 and 2017, a revision of some local antique urban photographs and a bibliographical review of Costa Rican, Brazilian and international Marxist authors, with the purpose of formulating a theoretical discussion to show how changes in the modes of production and the local economy strengthened the relationship between people and their land. A broad time frame is analyzed, from the colonial period until nowadays, in order to examine, how across the course of the evolution of the real estate market, the different forms of housing have adapted to preserve the strong attachment that the population has had for their land. Afterward, the issue of the recent emergence of luxury vertical buildings is addressed and a semantic analysis is done to examine the population´s response to the new residential proposal without access to open space. It is concluded the strong attachment to the land may be one of the main reasons for the slow acceptance of new vertical developments in Costa Rica, even though there might exist other factors.

Keywords:
Real estate market; Vertical housing; Colonial towns; Urban growth