Andrés Morales Arquitectos, Installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

Ciudad Libertad
Seed of a New Society
Costa Rica has been witness to the uncontrolled growth of its cities that, despite being in close proximity to each other, do not follow a sense of togetherness and are perceived as isles within a metropolitan area (GAM) that reflects the lack of planning. Therefore, what can we do in order to improve the saturated, collapsed, and disorganized cities of Costa Rica?
A seed could be planted that would germinate, transform, and pervade the neighboring towns to its DNA. We call this seed Ciudad Libertad.
It would be located between the cities of Alajuela and San José, bordering to the North with the Bernardo Soto highway, to the South with the Virilla watershed, to the East with Alajuela, and to the West with Atenas, less than 10km away from the GAM area. This zone was chosen due to the number of network connections, which is understood as the main element for the development of a city. In addition to this, its proximity to the GAM area allows it to be also very close to the main airport of the country and different basic services that are essential for the adequate planning of a city.
In the Ciudad Libertad approach, one of our objectives is to strengthen those connections under the concept of a biological corridor in order to link the most important cities to a more natural environment with the purpose of human and natural development hand in hand. With this we are trying to redefine the way in which we move through the city by incorporating parks to the network connections, giving priority to pedestrians and public transportation, and implementing the use of bicycles, trains, and buses.
We want to make use of our culture that cannot be confined only to the museums; our culture must be affordable and integrated into our daily lives. We want to implement technology as a main tool to apply alternative energies for city maintenance in order to minimize the impact of the city on its own environment.
Under these principles, a new city is planned as a means to generate a change in how the society appreciates its own environment and in how we live and move on it. This is why Ciudad Libertad presents a set of consistent living conditions, such as financial services, health care, education, and environmental conservation, apart from projects in culture, sports, and sustainable housing. However, the most important goal in this project is to link these conditions to alternative means of transportation for us to move in a more efficient way.
As the beginning of Ciudad Libertad, we have designed Hacienda Espinal, which is assumed to be the first community of this city, where we embodied the concepts of connectivity, nature, and culture, and turned the experience of traveling through public streets into a more enjoyable activity by promoting the pedestrianisation of the city.
Our main purpose with this project is to plant a seed that, as a living entity, will grow and act as a regenerating factor of the GAM area, taking as an inspiration the performance of the “natural society” imitating its ability of mutate, evolve, and reinvent itself, maintaining its balance over time and looking to satisfy the necessities of the changing society that inhabits it. This seed is Ciudad Libertad.