Transforming and revealing a footprint of place : new National Gallery of Art Project, San Jose, Costa Rica

Abstract

The primary focus of this investigation is the insertion of a new piece in an environment where the natural elements of site and the man-made elements of city can begin to inform the ordering systems used in the design process. The existing footprint of the ruins of La Antigua Penitenciaria, in the center of the Costa Rican capital, San Jose, is transformed in meaning and character to become a cultural center for the city. The problem presented is a contextual one of making a place in the world through a reading, cataloguing and reinterpretation of /lature, city, and culture. The .goal of the process is a building that reveals the meaning of its present time and place, set in a landscape that tells stories of its past.