Modern heritage in the construction of an urban country: Dialectics between architecture and city in Chile, 1930-1970

Abstract

There are certain episodes in the development of modern architecture in Chile when architectonic and urban dimensions were considered as one. This was directly associated to the production of the urban phenomenon during the twentieth century and already shaped a cultural and patrimonial tradition that can lead to a new way of looking into the relationship between architecture and city. In the apparently less prominent cases, there is a relationship between the aspiration of the urban future and the possibilities that architecture has of actually shaping it. This can be at least verified in the almost similar urban size and in moments of considerable challenges for the future of cities, in the case of Osorno during the 30's, Chillán in the 40's and Arica in the 50's and ill's. These examples are illustrative of the temporal movement of ideas and the dialectic relationship between modern architecture and city.