River-Park is a social housing and urban regeneration proposal for Cinco Esquinas, Tibás — a dense, low-income district of San José where green space is scarce and the Torres River bank has historically been occupied by informal settlements. The project works with two soil disposal sites, converting them into a community park and a prototype for affordable housing.

The housing units group four dwellings across two stories, a configuration chosen to keep structural systems simple and construction costs within the range of urban plot prices in the area. The building footprint is ovaloid, a geometry that maximizes green space between buildings and encourages interaction along the perimeter rather than isolating units behind walls. Lightweight construction in timber and palm — local, renewable materials — allows two-and-a-half-story buildings on plots that conventional concrete construction would make economically unviable.

The project preserves existing trees on the site and reintroduces native species along the river bank, treating landscape recovery as inseparable from the housing intervention. Bioclimatic strategies — natural ventilation, thermal insulation through straw and hempcrete, minimal mechanical systems — reduce operating costs for residents who cannot absorb high utility expenses.

The proposal is explicitly designed as an alternative to the gated condominium typology that dominates affordable housing delivery in Costa Rica, prioritizing street-facing, community-oriented space over security perimeters. Connecting the river edge to the surrounding neighborhood — rather than treating it as a boundary — is the project’s central urban argument.