Proyecto García: construcción de la ciudad de la costa

Abstract

This article analyses the urbanization process of the Ciudad de la Costa, a complex and growing metropolitan territory in Montevideo and the second largest city of Uruguay. Always understood as a spontaneous configuration process and an unplanned territory, a view of a global land project is suggested, completed in one century and in which the surveying and afforestation acquires crucial importance. The project begins with the acquisition of a large field by a businessman who starts using forestry as a tool for recovery and qualification of wetlands. A first land partition defines the main traces in the territory, and it is followed by a process of rural land fragmentation with an urban vision: first motivated by an equal distribution among the descendants of Doroteo Garcia, but then by an urbanizing project based in the sun and beach culture and real estate speculation. This defines the main components of this project.