Recovery of Public Spaces: A Comparison of Three Case Studies to Recover Public Spaces in Vulnerable Communities in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

This document analyzes different strategies developed to recover deteriorated public spaces in three vulnerable communities in Santiago, Chile. Its urban expansion has been characterized by a structural socio-economic process, which has produced inequalities between income and the composition of the social class in geographical spatial distribution. The socioeconomic inequalities prevailing in Santiago have served to build a fragmented and segregated city where access to public spaces is limited for residents living in vulnerable and low-income neighborhoods. In these districts, children, adolescents and the wider community have been brought indoors, deprived of open spaces and natural environments for group play or a diversity of experiences. Consequently, the intervention strategies explored in this document attempted to rehabilitate and recover abandoned spaces such as small dumps or parking lots in three different communities in Santiago: one in the commune of La Pintana and the second one in the commune of Quinta Normal. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of improving public spaces by transforming them into public outdoor play areas for children and into a social place for community use. These three interventions were developed with the support of local government through the use of reused materials. However, neighborhood residents participated in only two of these interventions. The evidence behind the three case studies analyzed confirmed that the involvement of community members and families was critical to ensuring the sustainability of these interventions. As a result, when neighborhood residents were involved from the early stages of space design through construction, they developed a sense of ownership that had an impact on the preservation and maintenance of these types of initiatives, thus ensuring successful intervention.