On the pavement, the oasis: Notes on civic and public architectural infrastructures in Santiago, Chile

The estallido social of 2019 in Chile and its aftermath exposed a national animosity–particularly in Santiago–toward civic and public architectural infrastructures. This article examines this phenomenon obliquely, on the one hand, by drawing on Éric Rohmer’s L’Arbre, le Maire et la Médiathèque, which discusses the tension between consolidating different civic programs in a single building versus atomizing individual programs across scattered buildings. On the
other hand, it analyzes three emblematic civic buildings in Santiago commissioned under different administrations over the last few decades. This piece argues that the analyzed buildings do not coalesce as social condensers and suggests looking at the Brazilian SESC network as a model capable of
integrating social, educational, cultural, and sports programs, while also being administered as part of a large network of similar buildings. The objective is to reinforce public identification with civic infrastructures at large, in Santiago and Chile.