Context and Problem

The historic center of Maracaibo faces a structural problem of abandonment of its built heritage, combined with informal dynamics of public space occupation. During the research and field survey of the area — particularly in alleys such as the Callejón de los Poderes, in the surroundings of the Castillo and the Cathedral — an intense spontaneous phenomenon was identified: the near-total covering of pedestrian streets with awnings (toldos).

Faced with the intense solar radiation characteristic of the city, merchants and residents installed awnings at approximately two meters in height. These elements, mostly made from deteriorated, torn, or visually poor fabric scraps, created a continuous and hermetic canopy. The result was the generation of a forced microclimate in the public space: in some stretches the accumulation of awnings was so dense that not a single ray of sunlight penetrated, even allowing the installation of air-conditioning units directly in the street. This constitutes an exceptional case of vernacular and spontaneous climatization of public space.

Key Finding: Latent Hidden Heritage

This network of awnings produces a secondary effect of major heritage significance. By completely eliminating the visibility of the façades from the street, merchants have no need to intervene on the buildings with large-format signage, commercial paint schemes, or aggressive modifications. As a consequence, hundreds of historic properties remain relatively protected from direct commercial pressure. There exists, therefore, a latent and hidden heritage behind this informal layer of solar protection: a building stock that could be recovered and valorized once the conditions of visibility and use of public space are reorganized.

Intervention Proposal

The intervention does not seek to eliminate the awning — an element that responds to a real and legitimate need for protection from the sun — but rather to transform and relocate it in an institutional, organic, and high-quality manner.

The proposal consists of:

1. Elevating the awning system above the buildings, surpassing the height of the façades. In this way, visual access to the built heritage is liberated while the shading function is maintained (and even enhanced).

2. Transforming the awnings into an artistic-urban infrastructure. The covering elements would be designed or intervened by citizen artists, generating a contemporary system of landscape and cultural character, rather than the current improvised and deteriorated accumulation.

3. Articulating the intervention with a second stage of transformation of the historic center: the reorganization of public transport toward the peripheries of the historic center and the consolidation of a tourist and pedestrian vocation. In this new scenario, the visibility of the façades becomes strategic, and the elevated awning system simultaneously acts as a device for solar protection and urban identity.

The proposal is deliberately simple and non-aggressive. It starts from a practice already existing and spontaneously demanded by the citizens, and elevates it to an institutional, aesthetic, and functional standard.

Strategic Value for the Historic Center

• Protects and reveals the hidden heritage by eliminating the visual barrier at street level.

• Improves thermal comfort in public space without relying exclusively on technological or high-cost solutions.

• Generates an element of contemporary urban identity based on a vernacular practice.

• Facilitates the transition toward a more pedestrian, tourist-oriented, and patrimonially legible historic center model.

• Offers a framework for citizen participation through the artistic intervention of the awnings.

Civic Thinkers Approach

This project exemplifies the working method of Civic Thinkers: starting from attentive observation of the real practices of the territory, identifying latent values (in this case the heritage involuntarily protected), and proposing low-aggression interventions that institutionalize and improve what the community itself is already resolving informally. It is a reordering strategy that does not impose an external image, but transforms and elevates a spontaneous solution toward a system of higher spatial, aesthetic, and heritage quality.