European influence on metropolitan planning in Chile: Santiago, Concepción and Valparaíso, period 1929-1965

Abstract

With the creation of the Planning Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works (1953) and the legal recognition of the territorial steps on the commune level, intercommunal urban planning began in Chile. It helps to clarify the origin of the guiding guidelines and the city model that was implicit in the projects for Santiago (1960), Concepción (1963) and Valparaíso (1965). Plans, ordinances and official reports were analyzed, as well as the interviews of the authors at the time, and their university education. The body of interest was studied as a consequence of, influences and achievements in the stages: initial (1929-1953), and mature (1953-1965) of the urban planning State. The knowledge of the training in Chile and abroad of the heads and authors of the aforementioned plans, would clarify the degree of direct or indirect influence of European professionals, or trained in Europe. Highlighted Abercrombie, Auzelle, Bardet, Bahrmann, Brunner, Brüning, Geddes, Hegemann, Lambert, Ling, Munford, Prager, Rouge, Sfintescu, and Munoz. There is, on the one hand, a certain distance between some doctrinal principles in the Athens Charter and, on the other, the application of some principles of what is now, considered territorial and urban sustainability.