Public Space as a mediator between “pobladores” and the State. Urban morphology of Chilean “poblaciones” in the 1960s

Abstract

Public space is commonly concerned from its social and political dimension, without clear distinctions between space and the public sphere. In addition, debates about the public came from ideas that emerged in the global north. The present document argue that it is necessary to restore the spatial condition of the public as well as its formal dimension to discuss why and whom the public is built in the south. An analysis of the elements of the typological urban form of emblematic towns in Santiago de Chile as a represented space, also known as 9x18 neighborhoods, is proposed. Four design hypotheses about neighborhoods are discussed, based on their land distribution, the hierarchies of their space, the bonds between neighbors and their relations with government services. It is concluded that the public space of the Chilean “poblaciones” built in the 1960s was intended by urban policy as a space that related the inhabitants with the State services.