Urban Patches of Valparaíso: Reinterpretation of Leisure as an Urban Practice.

Abstract

Public spaces have triggered heated debates within the Chilean public and academia, regarding adequate urban design strategies, policies and visions for such areas, creating a tension among the capacity for integrating environmental, human scale and local relevance concepts into the range of projections. The issue is discussed and developed using architectural observations in the hills of Valparaiso, particularly those that we have identified as potential public spaces –informal areas for recreation and leisure which have gone unnoticed so far. Finally, this contribution presents a proposal to create a new legibility of Valparaiso’s vertical plot and its ‘urban patches’ as a way of consolidating the urban fabric growing between its hills, ravines and remnants.