MATERIA URBANA

27.7.20 Urban Transformations in the Culture of Santiago's Barrios

Authors: Beatriz Maturana, Anthony McInneny, Marcelo Bravo
Open House International
2019

Abstract: Within Santiago, Chile’s capital city, Barrio is a fundamental urban concept: an identity of place that defines a social space more than the territorial boundary of a designated area. Nearly 30 years of sustained, economic growth have positioned Chile, and Santiago with 40% of the country’s population, as a tourist, financial and investment centre for South America. After a general decline of the inner-city area during the time of dictatorship (1973-1990), three innercity residential barrios are being re-defined by their social and urban heritage as part of the “coolest” city of South America. These residential barrios possess the social characteristics of an urban unit within the concept of an ethical city—autonomy, conviviality, connectivity and diversity—and, in form and use, the basis of urban cultural tourism, a living heritage of residential architecture, public space, and urban culture. The spatial and economic transformation of these barrios shifts the existing dynamic between the residents’ social capital and the barrios’ symbolic capital to the question of whose rights and interests should prevail. Through a literature review, policy review and analysis of morphology and land use of three barrios, this article draws lessons to assist a re-thinking of the development of this urban, social-spatial unit of Chilean cities.

Find this article: here

1.7.20 Protagonismo individualista que amenaza un estallido antisocial 2.0

Nota originalmente publicada en El Libero (30.06.2020)

Desde niña me enseñaron a cuidar lo del otro tal como si fuera mío. Para asegurarme, lo cuidaba aún más. El otro, sus esfuerzos y pertenencias, representado en el vecino, el amigo, o el colegio, merecían respeto. Así se hacía realidad que mi persona no era el centro del universo.

En conversaciones sobre el futuro de nuestras ciudades post pandemia y bajo amenazas de un estallido [anti] social 2.0, expertos nos dicen que parte del problema de violencia en los jóvenes —más evidente en sectores sociales y urbanos vulnerables— es su rechazo a una sociedad individualista. Así se entendería su ‘rabia’, la que a menudo se expresa en la destrucción de lo que no conciben como propio. En respuesta a esta sociedad individualista los jóvenes exigen ser escuchados y tener mayor participación en las decisiones.

Casa patrimonial en Av. Vicuña Mackenna 44, construida en 1915 y perteneciente a la Universidad Pedro de Valdivia, fue incendiada y destruida el 8 de noviembre 2019.

16.6.20 CROSSWAYS. THE BRIDGE AS A READYMADE

ANTHONY MCINNENY, BEATRIZ MATURANA COSSIO, AND MUSEO BENJAMÍN VICUÑA MACKENNA

The original article is published at Project Anywhere

Image 2: La Ciudad Enferma es Rescatable (The Sick City Can be Saved), 2016. A quote attributed to the Mayor of Santiago, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna (1875). Cast plumb bobs, inscribed with this quote suspended in front of two historical engineering plans. Below, Ernesto Ansart, engineer of Vicuña Mackenna, and his plan for the canalization (1873). Above, Engineer Martinez’s final design (1885) indicating the position of the nine metal bridges. Composite image and plumb bobs by Anthony McInneny.

A series of 9 Meccano type bridges were installed during the late 19 C as part of the canalization of the Mapocho River (Image 2). The canal and its bridges were the centerpiece of the modernization of Santiago de Chile as the “Paris of South America” and linked the north and south sides of the city for three kilometers. These links were easily moved or removed, replaced and multiplied during the 20 C. In the 21 C, three sites along the Mapocho contain the remaining four metal Crossway.

8.6.20 Youth, protests and the carnival of violences: Is there a place for reasoning?

Published in Planning News, 46(3), 16.

The following is my response to the concern and interest of my colleagues overseas, in relation to the recent events in Chile (October 18-present).

It is comforting to know that we have this great network of colleagues, who care and can give meaning to these experiences (although often I fail to find it myself). It is true that these situations highlight "a sense of quickening urgency to heal, culturally and ecologically".[1] I would like to add to this mix, that society, particularly our youth, have changed in ways sometimes incomprehensible. Thus, the social crisis in Chile is far from the traditional conflict of class struggle—this is something else. This is a crisis of our democracy, which is expressed in a mix of anti-institutional reactions, social demands, and rights that find no corresponding levels of responsibilities from those calling for them, and unprecedented levels of destruction and violence.[2] Carlos Peña claims that we have a democracy in which freedom is misunderstood, where teachers praise instead of guide and those who lead imitate the young. A lack of interest in rules and norms are confused with utmost freedom that results in “anarchy and anomie”.[3]