Between green discourse and urban practice: sustainable high-rise residential architecture in Cochabamba

Abstract

High-rise residential architecture has been promoted in Cochabamba, Bolivia, as a strategy for sustainable urban growth in response to climate change. However, the actual effectiveness of this approach remains largely underexplored. This article critically analyzes the development of sustainable high-rise residential architecture from a technical–institutional perspective, examining the evolution of regulatory frameworks, urban incentives, and their practical implementation between 1992 and 2025. The adopted methodology is qualitative and descriptive, integrating documentary analysis of municipal legislation, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, specialized technical training, and case studies of buildings developed under so-called “green” incentives. The results reveal a significant gap between normative discourse and architectural practice: sustainability criteria are applied in a partial and superficial manner, while incentives have primarily favored vertical expansion and the capture of land value increments by the real estate market. It is concluded that sustainability has functioned more as a mechanism of urban regulatory flexibilization than as a structural principle of environmental planning. The study highlights the need to strengthen institutional frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and technical verification systems in order to advance toward genuinely sustainable architecture integrated into a resilient and equitable urban vision.