Verticality in tourist housing. The transformation process of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

Due to its popularity as a tourist destination, the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico is experiencing an intense urban growth, primarily as a migratory flow of new residents, that manifests itself through the appearance of new buildings that consist, primarily, of vertical tourist housing, according to the architectural terminology used in the urban-planning of the city.  In these new schemes, tourist housing plays a decisive role in the territorial reconfiguration of the city.  It triggers the tendency to verticalization which, in turn, promotes new architectural attributes that change the urban landscape.  All this has been done, so far, in an extractive mode. That is why in this research I have asked myself the following questions: what urban-planning and architectural factors should impact the option of verticality in tourist housing in the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco; and what urban-planning processes are affected by tourist housing, and what is the response to the trend towards verticalization in the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco?, the objective is to identify; and demonstrate the architectural and urban factors that have led to the urban transformation, and have influenced the trend towards verticality in tourist housing in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco and to identify; the new architectural attributes, to develop the concept of densification as expressed through verticality in tourist housing, and to identify; recent and current urban transformations as a result of this process. This methodology is being completed using the qualitative analytical method, by means of the technique of participant observation in the previously selected places of interest.