With the aim of generating urban operations that optimize financial resources and stimulate sustainable development, the Costa Rican architect Luis Diego Barahona (San José, 1978) has planned a series of interventions for the Tirasses district, in the Curridabat canton of the province of San José. The Human Development Center, a sports complex, and Las Mercedes Park stand out as the three main projects, accompanied by Las Mercedes Pedestrian Walkway, La Ponderosa Park, the Pinos del Este bus stop, and the small Pinos del Este plaza.

The Human Development Center includes a children’s library, classrooms, and workshops. Maximizing usage flexibility, the concrete building organizes its three floors around a central zone flooded with natural light.

Located in the center of Tirrases, the sports complex features two playing pitches (multiuse and football), separated by a concrete construction with a sawtooth roof that serves as a gym (with a screen for projecting films). Facing it is a transversal volume containing offices.

Lastly, towards the south of Tirrases is Las Mercedes Park, which results from a composition of four circles evoking the Guayabo National Monument, one of Costa Rica’s oldest and most important pre-Hispanic archaeological sites. Adapting to the slope of the ground, the park’s four areas (rest zones, children’s plaground, skates, and steps/amphitheater) give dignity to a place that had been in a state of neglect.