Resumen

BONILLA CASTRO, Alejandro. Circulation of urban knowledge and INVU’s transnational networks, 1954-1970. Reflexiones [online]. 2018, vol.97, n.2, pp.87-106. ISSN 1659-2859.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rr.v97i2.32811.

This article analyses, through the Histoire Croisée (Entangled History) approach, how the Costa Rican National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU in its Spanish acronym) set into transnational urban planning networks, as a strategy to obtain not only financial resources for its urban projects in the Grand Metropolitan Area, but also support from international urban planning specialists and national technicians. The methodology is based on the analysis of the INVU’s Management Board Minutes, emphasizing on its member interactions with national and international urban planners, which resulted in the changing, acceptance, and/or opposition of urban models or theories that made possible the historical background of “good practices” in Costa Rica. The results of this investigation, suggest that the INVU, due to its participation in several international congresses and seminars, actively helped to shape and create those “good practices”. Furthermore, through its scholarship programs, the INVU obtained skillful professionals for its projects, mainly trained at the Interamerican Housing Centre (Centro Interamericano de Vivienda CINVA) in Bogotá, Colombia, which was one of the most important institutions that circulated the theories of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) in Latin American. Finally, the case study of the Neighborhood Unit of Hatillo Nº2, details how the involved planners choose their “good practices” in concordance to the national context and its political cost.

Palabras clave : History; Urban planning; Dissemination of knowledge; International cooperation; Costa Rica.

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