Learning from the ambiance throughout Urban Renewal

Abstract

Developed within the context of public space studies, the proposition applies the concept of ambiance to urban micro-space as an alternate approach to urban studies, providing a contrasting perspective to other urban disciplinary methods. Ambiance is understood here as the emerging feature of the relationship between the uses of space and the (physical and sensory) built space as it becomes meaningful when used, inhabited and built by individuals. Introducing the concept of ambiance as used by authors such as Augoyard (2010) and Thibaud (2004), allows us to avoid the problem of comparing spaces that are different in form and scale, as it focuses on the relationship between constructed/sensory space and social use. A study of three sectors of the inner district of Santiago-Chile, which where renewed in three different moments of urban public policies, is proposed to illustrate this approach. The middle-class neighborhoods and their inhabitants are studied in a praxeological perspective, thus, the proposition aims to discern how space shapes its use and in return how use and practice redefine, shape and re-appropriate space.