Resignificar desde la comunidad: comunicación participativa para activar el Hospital de San José como espacio de memoria y patrimonio cultural en Bogotá

Abstract

This project addresses the resignification of the Hospital de San José in Bogotá as a site of memory and cultural heritage through the implementation of participatory communication laboratories. From a critical perspective, heritage is understood not merely as monumental legacy but as lived, affective, and symbolic experience, especially within institutional contexts where knowledge, practices, and labor memories converge. The initiative recognizes workers with three or more years of service as carriers of living memory, whose experiences have been historically overlooked. Using a research-creation methodology, collaborative laboratories were designed to activate narratives, representations, and emotional bonds with the hospital space. Territorial exploration included reflective walks, situated observation, and narrative exercises that revealed zones of high symbolic density and tensions between institutional memory and administrative transformations. Key findings highlight emerging meanings of heritage: as symbolic resistance, affective bond, shared experience, and narrative co-creation. These insights were systematized into an interpretative matrix that guided the design of a comprehensive communication strategy, including SMART objectives, audience segmentation, brand identity, timeline, budget, and impact KPIs. The study concludes that participatory communication is a practice of symbolic justice capable of activating living memories and resignifying institutional spaces. The Hospital de San José is thus projected as a contested territory, rich in history, emotion, and possibility, whose reading demands theoretical sensitivity and ethical commitment to urban memory.