Patricia Nieto Pujadas

Location 
Ponce, United States 

Topic 
Urban Regeneration Building 

Program 
Collective housing Compact, Social 

Renovation of the Ponce Intercontinental Hotel 

The renovation of the hotel, by turning it into a residential building for artisans, and also a public space to teach and show the island’s traditional techniques and materials. This will be a starting point to enrich Puerto Rico’s economy through a sustainable production process, and make people understand that we need to change our consumption habits.

 We transform more than 100 billion tons a year of raw material into products. Not even 10% of all the waste we collect can be recycled. Industrialization and mass consumption are two of the reasons for our bad habits. Lately, in Puerto Rico, the capacity of the landfills has been severely reduced, mainly by the debris caused by last years hurricanes. Up to 20 out of the 29 landfills in the island were forced to close. The hotel is a 15000 m2 abandoned building, placed in the Vigia Hill, not really well connected with the rest of the city. It was built in the 60s, but it was only in operation for 20 years due to financial problems. The plot has sports facilities, parking and green areas which are also absolutely in ruins. 

The renovation of the building seeks to call for the reduction of consumption, by reusing materials that can be salvaged from landfills and recycling centers in the area.The project aims to transform the hotel into a “refuge” where manufacturing trades can be sheltered, through slow, sustainable and quality production processes. Annually, Ponce hosts a Crafts Fair, in which artists and craftmen from all over Puerto Rico gather to display their products. For this reason, the project creates a space for coexistence, where housing can be combined with public space, for exhibitions and teaching crafts. 5 types of handicrafts are selected to be housed in the building’s dwellings: pottery, weaving, cabinetmaking, basketry and goldsmithing, developing the first two. The entire plot is redesigned, rebuilding the sports and parking areas, the swimming pool, and creating new gardens by using native vegetation.The ground floor preserves part of its original geometry, considering itself as a public plant with attractive activities for the citizens, such as a café, terraces, stands for selling the products of the residents, and a large multipurpose area to implement craft workshops or to place the Ponce’s Craft Fair. The upper floors are intended for long-medium stay homes for artisans, designing 5 typologies adapted to the manufacturing process of each of the crafts. The plan breaks with the generic scheme of hotel rooms making dwellings in one or two floors. They are placed in a way that generates common spaces between them for the craftmen. This, along with new openings in the slab, helps cross ventilation, which is essential in tropical climates. The façade has different elements to protect the building from the solar radiation, such as setbacks, awnings or fixed slats. Each dwelling is designed with different materials, which may be handled during construction by residents, for their own homes, as well as those of others, providing them a job before living there, and during their stay. Materials are selected and rescued from recycling centers to treat them and turn them into construction material.