La Trinidad: From Satellite City to Urban Node

Satellites cities were the answer given by several Latin-American capitals to the unstoppable city growth. Unexpectedly, many of them were swallowed by the major city that they served. La Trinidad, a former satellite city in the south-east part of Caracas, was designed as a North American sub-urban neighbourhood that prioritized the accessibility to cars. In the past five decades, several geographic and infrastructural factors contributed to the transformation of La Trinidad into a virtual portal to Caracas. As many satellite cities, public space was not prioritized in La Trinidad. The use of land was strictly segregated between housing and industrial, and few connections between them were encouraged. Additionally, the presence of a creek was completely ignored, emphasizing the virtual limits of the parts composing the satellite city. These factors are the starting point of the present thesis, which aims to propose the creation a public space that serves as a joint between these unconnected parts of La Trinidad, but more important, arranging this public space to be suitable for the construction of a Subway station that was announced more than a decade ago by the central government, expecting to better connect the south-eastern part of Caracas. Historical, social, commercial, spatial and urban opportunities were identified to create a one-kilometre linear park that joints three sectors of the city, having the subway station and its surrounding squares as the central catalysers of activities, and supporting the revitalization of a commercially depressed zone by setting a plan of pedestrianization of the mentioned Kilometre. Another not less important intervention is the recognition and transformation of the relationship with the water stream, a natural element that not only enhances the experience of this new public space, but also contributes to the ecological balance of the zone. The kind of urban and architectural interventions proposed within this thesis serve as a reflection for a city that grew in a former rich oil-country and, consequently, designed its urban relationships focus on the scale and capacity of the vehicles, almost ignoring the existence of pedestrians. Improving the accessibility and giving the right space – and importance- to walking serves to promote a more diverse use of the public space, formally and informally, which in the end creates new centres that reliefs the dependency of historically important downtowns.