Developing climate-responsive cities: exploring the environmental role of interstitial spaces of Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Drawing upon a range of writing on suburbanisation and urban sprawl, this paper outlines an approach to the analysis of interstitial spaces of urban sprawl. Such spaces are the outlying geography of metropolitan regions existing in-between developed or urbanised areas. As such, they constitute an eclectic mix of open spaces, natural areas, obsolete infrastructures, geographical restrictions, farming land, etc, that alternatively contribute to the city’s environmental and functional performance. Despite being identified in the literature, there has been little recognition of interstitial spaces as part of the environmental sustainability of urban systems, and how they support cities in improving their resilience and adaptation capacities. Using the case of Santiago de Chile, this paper highlights an environmental approach to studying the interstices and the need to examine such spaces at different scales linked to their respective environmental potentials.