Modern Planning Options in Chile 1929-1959: concepts of circulation and transport in debates and strategies of territorial arrangement

Abstract

The formation process of modern highway systems and transport concepts in Chile, between 1929 and 1959 are described and interpreted in relation to the new needs of a territorial arrangement derived from the country’s industrialization process, after the 1929 world crisis. It includes the conceptual framework of Chilean professionals dedicated to urban planning and territorial arrangement. They were architects with a broad knowledge of European and North American contributions. They were occasionally reflective, creative and also critical whenever that contribution wasn’t coherent with the Chilean geographic, social and economic reality, as is the case of Modern Movement in urbanism. It highlights their early understanding of infrastructure as a principle of territorial arrangement, rather than as the effect of the implementation of technological innovations. The conceptual body they supported had a rather cultural focus, in relation to conceptual transference, that they themselves carried out mainly from Germany (W. Hegemann, K. Brüning, S. Prager), from Austria (K. Brunner), in the 1930’s, and from France (R. Auzelle y G. Bardet), in the 1950’s. Being ahead of their time they understood that the circulation network would have to fulfill a strategic performance in the required new territorial arrangement, where nodes would be considered more important than zones, connections much more important than administrative borders and where time would be considered much more relevant than space.