ARCH_419 International Housing Studio: ‘San Juan: Tropical Thresholds, La Puntilla’

San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital and the second oldest European settlement in the Americas, was founded by the Spanish in 1521 as a military outpost. Situated in the trade winds connecting it to Seville, Spain, the historic district of Old San Juan occupies the tip of a rocky islet at the entrance to the Bay of San Juan. This neighborhood, which is still surrounded by parts of the original defensive walls, is comprised of 16th to 18th century mostly one- and two-story buildings that form a grid of compact city blocks perforated by patios with underlying water cisterns. The site of this studio was in La Puntilla, a tip of low-lying land located outside and south of the city’s defensive walls. Once the site of the Spanish fleet and arsenal, it is now occupied by the U.S. Custom House, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the National Guard, housing, and a large parking lot.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the island’s main tourist attractions, Old San Juan embodies an urban model of living that is diametrically opposed to the predominant suburban housing model introduced in the late 1940s, when the island experienced great economic and social reform launched by New Deal agencies. The sprawl of single-family, modernist concrete houses covers most of the island’s built territory and has slowly degraded its historic town centers. Mostly residential and infrastructural, the sprawl has created areas of social and use segregation, as well as car dependence. This studio considered the design of collective housing, acknowledging the city’s rich historic heritage and incorporating passive design strategies—shading, cross ventilation, and orientation—to address the island’s tropical coastal climate.