Estoa. Journal of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism

Human responsibility for scientific communication in the era of Artificial Intelligence

Pedro Jiménez-Pacheco — 2026-07-22

The thirtieth edition of Estoa celebrates fifteen years of publication, consolidating its position in Scopus Quartile 3 and adopting an agile continuous publication model. However, this institutional milestone unfolds amidst the profound disruption of generative artificial intelligence. While language models democratize academic writing and broaden bibliographic discovery, their widespread use saturates editorial workflows, enables fully automated manuscripts, and erodes traditional quality metrics. In the face of this technical hyper-productivity, Estoa champions ethical transparency, indispensable critical judgment, and the value of human responsibility to safeguard the true evolution of science.

Influence of the quality of the definition of the activity name on the unit price

Carlos Saldaña — 2026-04-06

The dispersion among building unit prices would be considered normal since no two projects are alike; however, it is shown that price dispersion tends to decrease as the level of detail in the item name (NDN) increases. Therefore, different databases of unit prices for projects in Ecuador from the last five years are obtained to analyze the relationship between the NDN and price variations. Furthermore, the results are analyzed and discussed with reference to variables such as the location of the project, year of execution, and type of work. It is emphasized that the findings contribute, on the one hand, a guide for generating construction item names that lead to more accurate and fair cost estimates. They also provide technical arguments to regulatory bodies to determine potential underestimations or overestimations of prices.

Urban mobility and citizen perception: quality, safety, and comfort of public transportation in Bogotá

Sandra Rosero — 2026-04-06

This study analyzes how the quality, safety, and comfort of public transportation influence usage frequency and citizen satisfaction in Bogotá, within a framework of sustainable mobility and spatial justice. Based on surveys of 385 users and correlation analysis, a critical gap was identified: 60% of users perceive insecurity and 40% rate service quality negatively. Perceived quality correlates with frequency of use (r = 0.35, p < 0.05), while comfort emerges as a key factor in satisfaction. The results show that the deficit in well-being and trust limits system efficiency and reproduces territorial inequality, guiding strategies consistent with SDG 11.

Educational breakdowns. Learning proposals with games, models, prototypes, mock-ups, and detachable architectures

Alberto Bravo de Laguna Socorro — 2026-04-15

An effective way to learn architecture is through educational breakdowns, dissecting architecture with a thorough understanding of its components. Developing learning approaches with construction games, prototypes, scale models, and temporary or detachable architectures opens up an interesting field for experimentation in teaching architecture, from the beginning to the advanced stages. The use of approaches based on educational breakdowns will allow for the design of teaching strategies at various scales, ranging from the reduced scale of a model to the realistic scale of detachable architecture. For the architect, the analog model becomes the designer’s toy, with which they test the variables of a future implementation. Detachable architectures are built like a game, with parts that are assembled. Learning through breakdowns, experimenting with models and architectures, effectively blends the serious aspects of construction with the playful nature of play.

Synthesis of the Arts in Quito in the mid-20th century

Mauricio Luzuriaga — 2026-04-15

Throughout history, societies have expressed their collective identity through art in public spaces. In Quito, this tradition dates back to pre-Hispanic petroglyphs and extends through the Baroque period, which transformed church façades and interiors into narrative surfaces. In the 20th century, the city witnessed a singular phenomenon of Synthesis of the Arts: a collaboration between architects and artists that, within a short timeframe, materialized in projects linked to the Casa de la Cultura, the Universidad Central campus, and preparations for the XI Inter-American Conference of 1959. This study documents and contextualizes that exceptional moment, analyzes its aesthetic and ideological content, and assesses its value as a genuine expression of the spirit of the time. Finally, it underscores the urgency of recognizing and preserving this legacy through a critical architectural lens.

Carbon and nitrogen content in Mexico City: evidence of the influence of urban social structure

R. Isela Jasso-Flores — 2026-04-15

Globally, urban ecosystems are key to mitigating climate change. However, studies focus on developed countries, with few studies in Latin American cities. In this study, we modeled the carbon and nitrogen contents in vegetation and soil in Mexico City and evaluated how urban social inequality (social and economic development; form and structure; and functional typology of residential land uses) influences their contents. Our results indicate that lower social classes and high population densities have the lowest estimates of carbon and nitrogen. In contrast, middle and upper-middle social classes (property and construction prices) show the highest values of carbon and nitrogen. This knowledge is essential for understanding the impacts of urbanization and designing more sustainable urban planning strategies in the face of global environmental change.

E-commerce and residential density: A geospatial analysis of demand in Córdoba (Argentina)

Mateo Gamba — 2026-05-04

Electronic commerce has caused a territorial restructuring process of retail commercial activity. This trend and its implications on the physical-functional urban structure are currently subject of debate. In this context, destination points of e-commerce parcels constitute key data, since they allow to analyze the level of demand in different areas and to evaluate its correlation with various socio-urban indicators. This paper aims to analize the incidence of residential density on the volume of B2C ecommerce purchases in different areas of the City of Córdoba, Argentina. The proposed methodology uses geographic information systems (GIS) for cross-referencing geospatial data and is complemented with linear correlation calculations. The results reveal that areas with lower residential density tend to have a higher average number of purchases per home.

Percepción social y valoración del patrimonio industrial vivo: Casa Hacienda y Planta Industrial Cayaltí

Víctor Humberto González Auña — 2026-05-04

Industrial heritage is fundamental to collective memory and cultural identity, especially in agro-industrial regions such as Cayaltí, in northern Peru. The objective of this study was to analyze the social perception of the heritage value of the Cayaltí Hacienda House and Industrial Plant, identifying the dimensions of symbolic value, formal value and use value that define its potential as living heritage. A qualitative methodology was used with semi-structured interviews with twelve key social actors, using thematic coding and triangulation for the analysis. The results show a high appreciation of symbolic value shared by all groups, as well as formal recognition from technical and cultural perspectives. However, the use value presents diverse perceptions, highlighting challenges for its functional activation. It is concluded that the sustainable revaluation of heritage requires participatory strategies, heritage education, and multisectoral coordination to enable its functional recovery and social strengthening.

Analysis of potential impacts of urban air mobility in cities and their development

Oscar Díaz Olariaga — 2026-05-04

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging mode of urban transportation based on new aeronautical, electrical, and communications technologies. However, this will present a significant challenge for urban planners, as the planning and implementation of UAM must include and consider the development of new dedicated infrastructure, the socio-urban context, local needs, and an assessment of the impact it will have on cities and their development. Therefore, the objective of this review article, which uses a quantitative systematic review methodology, is to analyze the anticipated or potential impacts that this emerging mode of transport will have on urban development. As a result, this study presents an assessment of the impacts of UAM on urban infrastructure development, the existing urban transport system, the local economy, the urban environment and ultimately, society.

Biophilic assessment of urban planning in the El Kala world biosphere reserve (eastern Algeria)

Fatima Zahra Djouad — 2026-05-19

This study focuses on the El Kala World Biosphere Reserve, valued for its ecological and landscape importance, and intersected by the presence of the city of El Kala, which has been guided by an urban development master plan since 1990. The objective is to analyze the relationship between urban growth and natural spaces, highlighting the urgent issue of forest fires as a central challenge for sustainable planning. The method relies on a biophilic approach, which emphasizes the innate human connection to nature and uses documentary, landscape, and behavioral analyses to understand how architect-urbanists perceive and manage this environment. The results reveal three scenarios that show the standardized nature of the master plan, its adaptability to the surrounding ecosystems, and the persistent gap between projected strategies and actual implementation. In conclusion, the research underlines the need to integrate biophilic principles more deeply into urban planning, while stressing that effective responses to forest fires are essential to balance development with the ecological preservation.

Alternative space construction through creative mapping: the design potential of cinematic narratives in the case of Alice in Wonderland

Selva Başçı — 2026-05-19

This study aimed to integrate fantastical cinematic narratives into alternative spatial constructs using creative spatial mapping methods. In a design application conducted with Interior Architecture students using the film Alice in Wonderland as an example, mapping was used as a tool for analyzing the existing narrative and generating new spaces based on this analysis. The findings show that, despite being based on the same narrative, distinct spaces with clear formal and semantic differences were produced. Consequently, creative spatial mapping is considered a flexible and productive design tool that enables the reinterpretation of fictional worlds, and a qualified approach that supports creative thinking in design education.

Construction of ecological networks as a tool for sustainable territorial planning

Marco Castillo-Solano — 2026-06-08

Territorial transformations caused by human activities alter habitat availability, modify ecological flows, and generate conflicts in landscape connectivity. Primarily in rural areas, agricultural activities reduce natural cover, fragmenting ecosystems. In response, ecological networks constitute a planning strategy that integrates core areas, corridors, and buffer zones to maintain ecological functionality. This study aims to identify and construct an ecological network for the Loja canton through the Analysis of Morphological Spatial Patterns (MSPA), the Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) model, and circuit theory. Twenty- two ecological sources, 47 potential corridors, 26,768.08 ha of chokepoints, and 19,224.57 ha of barriers were identified, distributed unevenly across the territory. The model allowed for the visualization of priority areas for conservation and zones where territorial pressure affects ecological flows, making it a valuable tool for sustainable territorial planning.

Architectonic heritage as a symbolic locus: the jesuit church of Cuenca (Ecuador) and its dissolution from the social imaginary

Esteban Herrera González — 2026-06-08

The Church of the Compañía de Jesús in Cuenca, Ecuador, considered the city’s most outstanding building during the viceroyalty, was demolished in the second half of the 19th century. The objective of this research is to analyze the processes that led to this event and its subsequent influence on the city’s narrative. To this end, and with a view to ascertaining its symbolic position within the local context, the development of the Jesuit order is examined, and, based on primary documentation and archaeological findings, its most representative stylistic, morphological, and iconographic characteristics are reconstructed. Then, applying the History of Mentalities and in light of the semantics of architecture, the motivations for its demolition and the implications of this for the idiosyncratic character that subsequently emerged are explored. Although it is a specific case, the research invites us to reflect, in general terms, on the consequences of the loss of emblematic buildings or those listed as heritage sites.

Women’s participation in the construction and re-signification of industrial mining heritage: memories, practice and power

Pamela Heyden Pozo — 2026-06-08

Industrial heritage has traditionally been associated with male productive activities, a linkage that has rendered women’s participation invisible both in its social construction and in the processes of re-signification that followed deindustrialization. During the industrial boom in company towns, women played a fundamental role in sustaining the social fabric and everyday life, and more recently they have assumed a key position in the preservation of collective memory, the reappropriation of industrial vestiges, and the creation of new forms of heritage-making from community-based perspectives. At present, a substantive shift in their role can be observed: from historically marginalized actors within official narratives, they have become central agents in the conservation of industrial memory and in the transformation of former infrastructures into spaces for encounter, care, and cultural action. These practices democratize heritage processes and foster new ways of inhabiting rooted in feminine, community-oriented approaches.

Forms of production, appropriation and spatial practices in public space in popular neighborhoods of Manizales, Colombia

María Fernanda Abadía-Vanegas — 2026-06-10

The forms of production and appropriation of recreational and sports public spaces (PS) in popular neighborhoods of Manizales, Colombia, and the role of everyday practices in its social construction are examined. A multiple case study with a comparative approach was conducted in the Nuevo Horizonte commune, which included three units of analysis derived from a layered inventory of georeferenced information: conceived, self-managed, and co-managed public spaces. Cartographic and regulatory reviews were combined with fieldwork through systematic observation, semi-structured interviews, and life histories. Various spatial practices were identified that reveal tensions between formal planning and community production. The findings show that, beyond their origin, these spaces are transformed into common places through everyday appropriation and collective care, although they remain traversed by tensions and disputes over use and control. It is concluded that these forms of public space production highlight the need for more flexible and participatory planning approaches, in accordance with the socio-spatial dynamics of working-class neighborhoods.

Relationship between indoor environmental quality criteria and occupant satisfaction in CES-Certified buildings in Chile

Carolina Salazar-Vera — 2026-06-15

Sustainability certification systems evaluate different building categories in order to reduce emissions, improve energy performance, and promote occupant well-being. Among these, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) focuses on ensuring occupant comfort. This study analyzes whether the design strategies implemented to obtain scores in the IEQ category within the Chilean Sustainable Building Certification system (CES) effectively guarantee the satisfaction of people working in these spaces. Through a comparative study between CES technical documentation and occupant surveys conducted in two certified office buildings, the consistency between certification criteria and perceived comfort was examined. The results show that the CES tool prioritizes IEQ within its framework, which corresponds with high levels of occupant satisfaction, particularly in terms of thermal and visual comfort.

Julia van Wilpe in Costa Rica: Exploring her career through her personal archive

José Daniel Picado-García — 2026-06-18

This article examines the career of architect Julia van Wilpe (Germany, 1942), who developed her career in Costa Rica through her personal archive, understood as a device for preserving, remembering and structuring narratives about her professional practice. The qualitative research combined documentary review, semi-structured interviews, and archive analysis, initially identifying three main categories: childhood and personal memories, university training materials, and documentation of built and unbuilt projects. The findings show that the archive functions as a mechanism of the architect’s agency over her history, reflecting a tacit curatorial process that intertwines memory, forgetting, and the construction of disciplinary narratives. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of consolidating a disciplinary archive that preserves, systematizes, and expands research possibilities on van Wilpe and other underrepresented women architects in Costa Rica and the region.

From Recreational Park to Multifunctional Urban Platform: Transformations and Tensions in the Public Use of La Carolina park

Mauricio Javier Unda Padilla — 2026-07-13

The research examines the role of La Carolina Park as an urban infrastructure whose historical evolution and spatial configuration reveal structural tensions inherent to Quito’s metropolitan development. Conceived in 1942 as a recreational metropolitan park, the park has been progressively reconfigured under the influence of its surrounding financial and corporate environment, consolidating itself as a strategic centrality in the northern sector of the city. This condition generates a functional duality: while it operates as a territorial connector and recreational space, it simultaneously reproduces inequalities through the differentiated distribution of access points, amenities, and tree cover. These elements, far from being neutral variables, shape patterns of use, permanence, and social appropriation of public space, producing forms of internal segregation that constrain the full exercise of the Right to the City. Based on a socio-spatial approach supported by fieldwork, the study identifies patterns of territorial fragmentation and discusses their operational implications for contemporary urban planning in Quito.

The urban–rural interface as a complex territory: an analytical framework for its study in intermediate cities of Ecuador

Johanna Villavicencio Ordóñez — 2026-07-13

The intensification of urbanization processes has transformed the relationships between city and countryside, generating transitional territories where social, economic, environmental, and political dynamics converge. In this context, the urban–rural interface has become a key analytical category for understanding hybrid spaces shaped by processes of peri-urbanization, land-use change, functional reorganization, and socio-environmental conflicts. The aim of this research was to develop an analytical framework for the study of the urban–rural interface from the perspective of territorial complexity, considering it as a multidimensional geographical space. Methodologically, a systematized narrative literature review was conducted using Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and Google Scholar. The results made it possible to identify three main axes: the conceptualization of the urban–rural interface as a complex territory, the territorial processes that shape it, and the theoretical approaches most commonly used for its analysis. Based on these findings, an analytical framework is proposed that integrates critical geography, complexity, political ecology, and territorial planning, and is useful for future empirical research in Ecuador’s intermediate cities.

Living heritage in the Andes: architectural and symbolic valuation of the colonial temples of Colta, Ecuador

Héctor Manuel Cepeda-Godoy — 2026-07-13

This study conducts a comprehensive assessment of the religious heritage of the Colta canton, focusing on the Virgen de la Natividad de Balbanera and San Lorenzo de Sicalpa churches. A qualitative-descriptive approach was applied, combining documentary review, planimetric surveys, urban- architectural analysis, the INPC Baremo (2011), the Nara Matrix (1994), and digital documentation techniques. The results reveal strong historical, symbolic, and aesthetic values, and a generally stable conservation state with localized pathologies related to rising damp and biodeterioration. The discussion highlights theoretical and methodological contributions for heritage valuation in Andean contexts and underscores the importance of participatory management. Recommendations emphasize preventive conservation, the use of digital recording technologies, and the promotion of responsible cultural tourism. Finally, the conclusions are presented, reaffirming the importance of these landmarks as living systems of identity and collective memory.

Transforming heritage into knowledge: a case of adaptive reuse for children in Midyat

Ruşen Ergün — 2026-07-13

A children’s library is one of the important functions provided by historical buildings for educational and cultural purposes. This study aims to evaluate the use of historical buildings as baby and children’s libraries. The historical building that was reused as the Midyat Baby and Children’s Library was examined in the study area. The suitability of the building for use as a baby and children’s library was analysed and evaluated in terms of ‘accessibility’, ‘spatial design’, ‘interior design’, ‘technical’ and ‘building design’ criteria. As a result of the analyses, it was determined that historic buildings are suitable for use as baby and children’s libraries if they meet the correct design criteria and comply with international historical building conservation regulations. This situation not only ensures the sustainability of the historic building through its reusing but also enables children to learn about cultural heritage through experience.

The relationship between vernacular architecture and timber availability in the border area of Umphang, Thailand

Francisco Garcia Moro — 2026-07-13

This study examines the relationship between forest policies, timber scarcity, and Karen vernacular architecture in Thailand’s Umphang Valley, a contested border region shaped by ethnic conflict, informal economies, and vast forests. Based on field trips (2022–2026), photographic surveys, and interviews with local builders and officials, the research finds that Thailand’s 1989 logging ban and subsequent community forestry law, while ecologically motivated, have severely curtailed access to traditional hardwoods like teak. This scarcity has fundamentally altered Karen building practices: vernacular houses (Pa Paka Kyaw) increasingly incorporate brick, concrete, and reclaimed timber, producing hybrid forms that reflect both cultural resilience and material compromise. The study argues that the survival of Karen carpentry as a living craft depends on sustainable forest management and intergenerational skill transmission, which are currently undermined by bureaucratic obstacles, illegal logging, and cross-border timber smuggling. Contrary to romanticized views of pre-modern ecological harmony, the paper concludes that contemporary vernacular architecture in Umphang emerges not from static tradition but from the unresolved tensions between state regulation, subsistence needs, and the pervasive influence of regional politics. Without meaningful policy reform and community-led forest access, both the region’s forests and its distinctive timber heritage face irreversible decline.