CURRENT PROBLEMS OF URBANIZATION

By Dr KARL BRUNNER

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Lectures given at the Hall of Honour, University of Chile, On 29 October and 14 November, 1929

CURRENT PROBLEMS OF URBANIZATION i In the recent past, there emerged divergent and even contradictory doctrines regarding the standpoint from which modern urban problems are tackled and treated. Problems were considered from either the aesthetical-artistic point of view, or as problems of engineering nature exclusively, and even lately and in many cases, as issues of public salubriousness. Over time, each one of these doctrines has borne fruits in different places through works realized according to its prevailing influence. The great avenues and squares representative of our European cities remind us of the memorable time of monumental buildings; while, at the same time, populous barriosii were ignored though, without issuing regulations for their rational extension. It was thus possible for districts to be developed by an unfettered speculators’ mercantile spirit, leading to the natural consequence, namely their overcrowding. Even the Monumental Boulevards of Paris were surrounded, to a great extent, by unhealthy areas that urgently required rational sanitation. After this period of Monumental urban design, the next, focusing on these problems, was dominated by the technician’s compass and ruler. Then it was completely forgotten that a relationship must exist between man and nature: the necessity of gardens, sports fields and recreation. Not long ago, the concept of Urbanismoiii was developed to synthetize all those trends, imposing itself as a science that embraces problems from a scientific point of view. Currently, Urbanismo takes into consideration: first, the cultural aspect and social hygiene of its mission in relation to political-economic problems; second, the technicalengineering aspect of problems and the ensuing necessities; and third, the artisticaesthetic aspect aimed at creating a harmonious ensemble within the city. From the artistic point of view, the most notable feature in the activities of private construction is the lack of an aesthetic and collective unit. Many of our modern Chalet towns are the best example of the disorientation and selfish spirit of our time. Urbanismo, the synthetic application of all these principles together, has made possible the elaboration of idealistic projects that might serve instead for transforming the cities. What is needed in relation to the cities’ transformation is a separation of sectors, including business and public buildings, and others for residence and industry. Each one of these sectors shall be separated from the other through open spaces with vegetation, spaces that must connect the city centre with the countryside. Professor Moiret – a sculptor and philosopher whose condition as thinker and artist made him unwittingly deal with town planning problems – has projected in a series of plans the image of an ideal city complying with all of today’s requirements. The city’s central nucleus, where public and most representative buildings are located, is encircled by residential barrios surrounded by strips of gardens and parks; around these districts are located educational centres, hospitals, sanatoriums and recreational fields. To materialize a theoretical ideal of this kind naturally requires an adaptation of the existing conditions.

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New master plans iv General planning of Central European cities is based upon the basic regulations that determine the character and purposev of the building in different zones or sectors of the city. Accordingly, the building’s purpose can be distinguished: as residential, commercial and industrial barrios, open spaces with vegetation for ventilation, areas for railway and air transport, etc. Depending on the building’s character can be distinguished: the detached, semidetached or continuous edifications; also the zones with buildings of specific height, which likewise regulate the proportion between the area of land and the floor area. Thus for instance in a specific zone only a half or a fifth of the ground surface may be built, or it is forbidden to build at the block’s centre, where gardens shall be available. It is also established the amount of floors that, in some cases, is compulsory for every new building. When a regulation in this respect is missing, the residents’ freedom is only too apparent, since in practice each one makes use of it without taking into account the neighbours’ conveniences, so everyone annoys and harms the others’ interests. This also relates to the conditions of external appearance: even though each building may be in itself well-disposed and proportionate, its effect may be, nonetheless, diminished by the diversity in proportions of the adjacent construction. Modern town planning aims at obtaining aesthetical unity throughout all the barrios, which can only be achieved with the regulation of the building’s quality, intensity of development and purpose according to specific sectors. It is of special importance for the European cities’ development the municipalities’ economic policy regarding the value of land around urban barrios. Almost everybody tries to purchase suburban land in order to take part in the urbanization of expanding areas, thus obtaining the means for facilitating necessary expropriations through exchanges of benefits with the authorities.vi It is also noteworthy the trend to distinguish clearly between the traffic streets, which must be especially equipped for that purpose, and those of a residential character. In order to fulfil their purpose, traffic streets have special requirements concerning their width, layout and urbanization services. One of the greatest difficulties for the transformation of European cities is the necessity of widening the busiest streets flanked by five- to seven-storey buildings, which in most cases is impossible because of the great expenses involved in such undertaking. Of special importance is the level at which long-distance railways are located in relation to the city’s structure. They must be above or beneath the streets, so that the outgoing traffic is not split or hampered. In the new garden cities built in the outskirts of European capitals, in grounds with no development and therefore inexpensive, the station is located beside the railway, above or below the ground level, so that, in the former case, the station can become the settlement’s centre from which residential streets can radiate. Solving traffic problems often puts at risk the preservation of many monuments of either artistic or historic value. Officers in charge of preserving public monuments – with Vienna as the first city to appoint one – have the task to maintain these monuments with their unique character, 3

while supervising in specific cases any restorations required. The city of Breslau deals with this action in an exemplary way. Trees and parks in the cities must have the same consideration as that given to monuments. The demolition of former fortifications in order to use the ground for new constructions is not usual anymore and such spaces are now reserved for future parks and gardens. In the city of Vienna can also be found examples of today’s problems in the field of housing construction. It is a recognized fact that the way housing is built for the mass is an essential element for the general aspect of a city. The large buildings of flats for the working classes that Vienna’s municipality has produced during the last six years with public funds are well known. I must warn in advance that these constructions are a moot point between two major political groups in my homeland. With a socialist majority in Vienna’s municipality, in the last parliamentary elections, the municipality promised to continue its municipal housing policy. Now with a non-socialist parliamentary majority, bourgeois groups – Social Christians and nationalists – declared instead that they did not wish to continue the construction of massive buildings containing flats to rent out to the workers. The solution to this problem is difficult because the rent of existing constructions has been annulled by the currency’s devaluation, which is why the private capital was not interested in building such houses. Only a few months ago has it been possible to overcome the opposition’s resistance and to get the State’s support for financing housing built by the private sector. The large constructions of blocks of workers flats, owned by the Municipality of Vienna, have become too famous for me not to offer an opinion on them. Considered from the perspective of town planning, some blocks offer a pleasant image; it must be borne in mind that such constructions shelter countless units between thirty-six and sixty square metres, with an average of only fifty; therefore, any special architectural effect would be against the building’s purpose.vii Meanwhile, the small housing units’ adaptability to high-riseviii for the working class is a delicate issue, considering that, even with a good distribution, only few flats can have access to stairways; also that in this case of no profitability, lifts are not an option. All the skyscrapers of the Vienna Municipality lack lifts so dwellers every day have to go up and down the seven or nine floors afoot, owing to mere “architectural reasons”. An advantage of large unitary blocks over individual buildings – divided in countless lots of diverse sizes and heightsix – lies in the former’s possibility for large common patios that help the homes’ lighting and serve as open spaces for leisure and recreation. In the example of a two-thousand housing-unit project that I was recently commissioned in Vienna, the layout followed new town planning trends, despite the fact that the distribution was based on the old system of rectangular blocks. I have only maintained, for economic reasons, a lowered street and a big depression in the final project; the latter is to be used as playground in whose centre will be located a “Haus der Jugend”, home school for the youth with classrooms, gymnasiums, kindergartens, etc. Small gardens for families with numerous offspring will stand between the long rows of houses. Exemplars of new style working-class housing are to be found in German cities where entire districts have been subject to uniform planning and are provided with wide meadows between the building blocks. Multi-storeyed buildings in Germany are not usually above four, the majority being low houses of two storeys, detached or semi4

detached. A natural consequence of this is a decrease of the built mass, so that new building blocks clearly differentiate from the older ones and shelter gardens within. Rational projects of this type also seek to make cheaper “standard” constructions through mechanical means of manufacturing of building materials and dealing systematically with all the elements of urbanization. The latter must includex street paving, the placing of main pipes, of house services and the availability of enough means of provision, alongside adequate opportunities for mobility. These homes for petty bourgeoisie and working-class families are built in Germany only exclusively through the emission of mortgage bonds guaranteed by the State. The initial capital or share of the building cooperative does not generally represent more than 10 per cent. The rest is provided by the State through funds from taxes on leases at a very reasonable interest rate. If the State is to contribute these funds, the building of new developments must abide by technical conditions, especially those of a rational and economic urbanization, jointly with an execution that eliminates superfluous expenses. The way these restrictions affect the projects’ execution regarding the size, architectural image and finishing of the buildings has shown that the State’s aid can influence more efficiently and beneficially the evolution of today’s architectural concept. The fundamental dispositions for urbanizing free sectors are also determined, for in all these post-war constructions, reduced mortgage funds are added to public resources, so that the utmost economy must be pursued. Nonetheless, in principle each dwelling is given a proportionate garden, whose extension is larger than the one used in Holland or England. The latter examples show the predominant use of the continuous house attached on both sides to the next one. In addition to making construction cheaper, this method has other advantages: 1) the lower front to the street with a better use; 2) the circumstance that, in proportion to the plot area, the continuous house is given an uninterrupted rectangular garden, whereas in the detached one this extension is reduced to a narrow surrounding strip. In addition to that, I also observe that Vienna is building developments of this type, but in very small scale by comparison with the amount of collective housing. The skyscraperxi It is well known the chaotic development that has been experienced by the centres of most North American cities, due to the lack of timely restraint to the possibilities of constructive techniques. The consequence has been the agglomeration of a series of gigantic buildings that block the air and sunshine to one another and keep in darkness many streets; they offer the image of true abysses that are incapable of channelling the traffic during working hours. It is curious that, while so much importance is given to the sanitation of the single house and the cultivation of gardens, it is permitted that those places where the majority of dwellers spend most of their time per year lack the most indispensable elements for organic life: air and light. Luckily, in the districts of skyscrapers of North American cities two important reforms have been introduced: the staggering of fronts at different storeys while receding upper ornaments from the plane of lower floors at a fixed distance, which at least improves the conditions for the light’s entrance. 5

This staggering is established in different building regulations following diverse methods. It must be borne in mind that these types of regulation define the blocks’ volumetric mass,xii silhouetting their sides, which endangers the city’s aesthetical effects. Such regulations ought to be subordinate to considerations of architectural composition. Without this kind of regulation, the buildings’ upper parts could result in a conglomerate of heterogeneous pieces that would damage forever the city’s good image. Inasmuch as more skyscrapers are built, there are more possibilities that, if grouped together, they produce a certain volume and homogeneity. Here could lie the salvation of the city’s image, so long as the skyscrapers are not amassed but are distributed at specific points. In this way skyscrapers become part of the city’s organic whole and facilitate orientation, a function that used to be part of the reason for church towers. The possibility of obtaining effects from the new monumentality, following those principles, is embodied by the project of the Telephone-Company-Buildingxiii in St. Louis. An edifice of this type – a true monument to work – could easily crown the entire district. Relying on the North American experience of building skyscrapers, its application in Europe has been generally rational and beneficial. Those European cities that have a series of monumental buildings of historic character and certain height, like Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Vienna, if necessary accept in the city’s central districts a nine- to tenstorey-high continuous building, so long as upper floors are staggered. This system has been followed in the last section of the Parisian Boulevards that have been recently completed. It is a different case in those parts where the skyscraper is considered an isolated element of special importance in the city altogether, as it happens with most German cities. The starting principle in this case is that the skyscraper must only be accepted in such spots where its towering silhouette may enrich the city’s skyline, offering in any case an architectural perspective from any standpoint. This means that firewalls can only be as high as adjacent buildings and that the protruding height – a five- to six-storey average – must be treated architecturally from all sides. These principles are modified when it is a matter of building a series of skyscrapers aimed at shaping an ensemble within the city’s panorama. In these cases it is impossible to reach a satisfactory result through the competition by which a skyscraper aspires to exceed the previous one’s height. For these cases the principles valid for the repetition of similar elements in all plastic arts – namely proportion, rhythm and harmonious increase of values – must be followed. Another principle is that the city’s plan with its layout of streets and borders of buildings, on the one hand, and the height and volume of the edifices and especially skyscrapers, on the other, are intimately related to one another; to the extent that any value in any of these parts determines requirements and conditions for the rest. This is the reason why, for the implementation of a project, it is no longer admissible to present the buildings’ plan and location separately, but both things should be put together, either in a modelxiv or a perspective. The building of skyscrapers in South America’s great cities seems to have been guided in many cases by the aforementioned principles. Both the “La Noite” skyscraper in Rio de Janeiro, a highlight in the harbour district, and the background of the Rio 6

Branco Avenue,xv alongside other constructions, are all motifs that enhance the city’s picture. On the other hand it is not convenient to permit the limitless construction of skyscrapers. The beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro is threatened by complete architectural disorganization. If the construction of skyscrapers is no longer avoidable where land values are highest at the city centre, the situation is different for the most distant barrios, where the imposition of some restrictions would be surely convenient. The “Copacabana” sector offers a combination of skyscrapers, of lower-height houses and streets with detached chalets in addition to the Negro population’s housing units on the slopes.xvi It almost seems as if the eight- to twelve-storey houses were intended to hide the view of this barrio of huts from the beach, but unfortunately the vista of the hills is thereby covered too. These considerations lead us to resume the problem of proportions. Especially seduced by tropical vegetation, foreigners think that the prevailing palm should become a measure that the buildings’ height ought to be adapted to. Nowadays it is admired from above how the rows of palms stand out from Rio de Janeiro’s sea of buildings, but that will end with new higher edifices. The multiplicity of forms of Rio de Janeiro’s building development is admirable. While in the built sectors skyscrapers multiply themselves, stones and soil from the hills’ slopes are laid into the sea, in order to gain new suitable ground for building. The settlement at the foot of the Sugarloaf, built upon land thus gained out of the sea, is partially occupied and linked by bus to the city. In Rio de Janeiro’s east part, the same process is being done on a large scale; entire hills are being reduced by using pressurized water in order to gain land suitable for development, both in the mountain’s slope and in the bay’s landfill.xvii

Traffic streets More than aesthetics, one of the most overwhelming effects that the skyscrapers’ construction has on cities is on the street traffic. In American cities, where the use of the automobile is much more generalized than in Europe, there is much more transit than in European cities of the same size, and therefore congestion is more noticeable. It cannot be stressed enough that the concession of building permits for high-rise buildings, especially in long plots,xviii must go hand in hand with the streets’ widening and the simultaneous creation of parking spaces. There is something true and prophetic in the illustrationxix recently published in a newspaper about the future city with streets of three or more storeys. Chicago already has a two-storeyed street and there are numerous projects of multi-storeyed traffic streets. In practice it will be necessary, for a long time, to keep to other means of clearing traffic, above all by the separation of flows and other measures imposed by the respective technical departments. Rio de Janeiro’s centre, that almost without exception has two-lane streets, is the best example of what can be obtained through good traffic regulation. Similar cases can also be observed in other cities. But in these problems there are divergences of criteria between the aims pursued by town planners and traffic technicians. The latter claim to solve traffic problems in the very place of congestion through technical means at their disposal. They consider transit as an end and constantly seek more interesting solutions. They look for solutions for separating the traffic of trams, 7

vehicles and pedestrians through overpasses or underpasses, especially at street intersections, carrying trams underground and separated from other means of communication. The town planner’s opinion in these matters is often divergent; he tries to cure not only the affected organ, but also the whole body in which one studies the origin of the evil.xx Specific town planning measures for a general traffic regulation consist of clearing existing streets through opening new roads, following a broad and perfect design that at the same time can have representative purposes. By comparison with European cities, whose development dates back many centuries, American cities have the advantage of having planned the layout of broad avenues that, besides providing large capacity, connect the centre with suburban barrios and those sectors intended for the city’s future expansion. In this respect Santiago is in a very happy situation; the roads that it has and those projected can be said to be exemplars. It suffices to see the Alameda in its different sectors and at different times in order to realize that this avenue has become the main artery of urban life that vibrates with all its beats.xxi To the visitor who arrives for the first time, to the end of this beautiful avenue – Alameda 4500 – will surely be noticeable the urban amplitude of its design, which leads along a wide section avenue into the very countryside; but the visitor will have to recognize that, in a few decades, this street will become an important road of transit and will have to carry the traffic for the barrios that will arise here in the future. Santiago’s future system of avenues will allow the practical application of the “town planning” system of traffic, which for the first time was developed for a Central American city: Havana. Here the city is divided into traffic districts surrounded by important streets. The districts’ streets only have one direction and serve for carrying the traffic into the main roads. Right angle crossings are avoided as much as possible, trying to incorporate the secondary flow without stumbling into the mainstream, while drawing lateral transit alike. According to this system, streets’ intersection is made through two curves, as in any other roundabout. The practical attempts carried out in Havana have shown satisfactory results.xxii This system offers some advantages over known methods of “stop and go” of mechanical type, which often regulate a non-existing traffic and whose installation does not contribute, in general, to the city’s ornamentation. I shall mention here that, in the same city, the intense development in the centre and the lack of room for car parking has forced the elaboration of a project for an underground garage beneath the main square, accessible through two double ramps. Santiago is going to have a similar device in the centre; at the back of the new edifice of Portal Mac-Clure, as I have heard, an ample underground is to be built for keeping one hundred or more automobiles.xxiii

Green areas The simpler the town’s form, the more important is the natural decoration, at least for aesthetical reasons. Modern planning no longer considers human work as a simple factor to be calculated, and tries to avoid the idea that the urbanizing population can be arbitrarily cut off from nature. On the contrary, the planning of dwellings is every day more and more 8

intertwined with the surrounding landscape, parks and playgrounds. Where such parks xxiv do not exist, as in Cologne’s outskirts, they are now formed jointly with new developments. From the standpoint of modern town planning, the network of broad avenues boasted by Santiago also has the advantagexxv of making possible, through minor improvements, an ultramodern requirement (and mostly unrealizable): namely the wideness and continuity of green areas. More and more it is recognized that the parks’ and gardens’ value are enormously increased by their inclusion in a system of parks that can continue throughout the city; for instance, across a pleasant promenade or garden is possible to arrive from one park to another. In this system are included all the meadows and groves along continuous avenues that Santiago has plenty of. As a complement to this system only the following transformations will be necessary: the prolongation of the plantations of Portales Avenue up to Brazil Avenue, with one-block enlargement of Plaza Brazil; a short avenue linking Santa Lucia Hill with Forestal Park;xxvi an adequate transformation of Pio IX Street; and lastly the creation of a broad band of plantations with squares for playing and resting, in the part that today goes from Ferrocarril Pirque through Irarrázabal. These latter gardens will lead to a large natural park in the city’s Southeast district, where it will probably be located between the popular barrios of Maestranza, Ñuñoa and Providencia.xxvii In Graz, Austria’s second city and Styria’s capital, which overall offers much resemblance with Santiago, has long since pursued a unified system of urban parks. It has already connected the Schlossberg – Graz’s Santa Lucia, planted as a park – with the Municipal Park, and currently the green area is being extended along the river into the inner city. The policy in favour of open spaces across the cities, long since pursued in America, has gained remarkable development in Latin American countries, following the construction of new squares for playgrounds and sports fields carried out recently. It must be repeated once again that contemporary town planning endeavours to incorporate harmoniously into the cities the new projects of recreational spaces and sports fields. This system of afforesting cities ought to be further increased by promoting by all means the creation of leased gardens for labourers. Working classes were originally accustomed to cultivate these gardens in Holland and England, which thereafter became general throughout Central Europe; it represents an ethical and socio-economic factor of popular education and a means of hygiene for new generations. These gardens have started at the San Cristóbal’s slopes,xxviii showing how much more of them could be utilized. These gardens remind me of an urban garden for workers carried out recently on a hill in Remscheit, Ruhr Department. Beyond that there are other sectors of the city’s area, wasted today and offering yet more available space. These are the excessively wide streets in the city’s peripheral barrios, whose layout dates back to town planning’s schematic period. As most cities of some importance, Santiago has, in its peripheral districts, countless streets of twenty to thirty metres, where an increased volume of traffic will not appear for a long time. Because of the dust raised, these streets are a permanent nuisance for their residents, while causing the devaluation of the neighbourhood. To provide with an adequate paving their entire width would be almost impossible for economic reasons. Let us bear in mind that, in the new residential streets, building lines are distanced by twenty or more metres, but gardens are put in front of buildings and only a part is intended for the street. In this way wide streets in the city’s outskirts could be utilized, by 9

reserving approximately half of it to gardens and the other half to the street as such, while gardens could be leased by the municipality to the owners. It would be convenient to try it out in some blocks, while calculating how much the cost of paving and its conservation can be reduced. Small gardens for workers are nowadays part of town planning; in recent years they have been recognized as an important ethical factor for family life and the children’s physical and moral strengthening. This kind of development suggests visually that a new monumental and overall style is being shaped, not only formal and architectural, but also synthetic; as if from this union between the simple and immediate necessity of housing and the corporeal and spiritual requirements of a new generation, the best aspects of modern urbanization could be expected; only the inclusion of all phases of human life in the town planning’s basic principles will enable it to fulfil its true mission: namely to provide a noble service to the human community.

The quadrangular layout The problem of the streets’ convenient width is intimately related to the building blocks’ size and proportion. The usual system of square blocks in Latin America,xxix also existing in some European cities, though offering some advantages for orientation, also has a series of inconveniences when used too rigidly. In the city centre, this system makes difficult the layout of radial avenues to be adapted to the existing street network; in the outskirts, in mainly residential sectors, the quadrangular layout of blocks is inadequate and disadvantageous. Convenient and sparing for the plot division are the widespread rectangular blocks, whose length is usually adapted to that of the plot desirable, in blocks that generally have sixty-eighty-metre depth.xxx The length of these blocks, when they radially approach the traffic roads or tram stops, can reach two hundred metres. Meanwhile, when plots are given this shape, precise conditions must be established for the development; considering that it can invalidatexxxi efforts for the cities’ sanitation, the capricious development of such plots is inadmissible from the standpoint of current town planning. From every point of view I consider inadmissible that in a city that strives for its embellishment and sanitation and, as mentioned before, holds residential streets between twenty and thirty metres; that in this city, in complete contrast with its streets’ width, the construction within blocks of three- to four-metre passages with two-storey buildings be tolerated. The impossibility of maintaining the owner’s absolute freedom to build at the blocks’ centre is demonstrated by the Buenos Aires case. Here, from a lateral street, a long and narrow plot extends at the back of the properties that face the street, taking away the light from their patios. Meanwhile the new building’s patios would be completely darkened once the still-low houses at the front are transformed. One can foresee that all these houses will be insalubrious in the short term, if not already.xxxii In this sense, it is necessary to make substantial reforms to building regulations, which must be preceded by a series of well-focused preliminary studies. These studies must mainly relate to the possibilities of reforming master plans in areas to be built and towns that only exist in the paper; they must fix the adequate size of plots, regulating the development system to be used, such as continuous, detached or mixed, as well as the space to be left in front of the buildings; they must also set their height and an internal line for the construction, so that the blocks’ centre is cleared to benefit all the neighbours. 10

The divergence between old-fashioned and newly reformed development is also evident in European cities, where, in order to sanitize insalubrious or dilapidated barrios, there are no impediments to change the layout of plots and building blocks. The same has been done with cities devastated by the war. By highlighting the size of an ordinary square block in the plan of a Dutch town it can be shown how that areaxxxiii is divisible in two rectangular blocks with a street that runs through the middle. In many cases this division has been carried out, so only a few regulations would be necessary to attain the general reform of today’s building system in square blocks, trying to obtain rectangular ones as much as possible. Also the proposals in a competition for parcelling a square ground, aimed at obtaining hygienic solutions in Munich, attain a similar result. There is in general the tendency to leave a minimal space between two building lines equivalent to one and a half or twice the buildings’ height. The last subdivisions of plots in Germany follow the economic principle in modern towns taken to the extreme. Meanwhile it would be convenient to attain some intensity in uniform development across a neighbourhood. The importance of this is indicated in the following consideration. The sub-delegations of Military School and Ollería, in the Comunaxxxiv of Maestranza, had a population of 44,600 inhabitants in the last census. Considering a development regulated according to the aforementioned principles, with hygienic housing, this population would exceed fifteen thousand inhabitants, what is considered admissible, namely 30 per cent surplus. This shows that a reform of the building system would not have a devaluation of the land as a consequence. There is at the same time the city’s interest to fully exploit its urbanized sectors before sprawling in order to absorb population.

The central avenue To talk in Santiago about urbanization problems concerning cities without addressing the widening of Gálvez Street would be an inexcusable omission. The necessity of having a wide street in that sector is indisputable, so there are two projects that are known. One is the opening of a central avenue, at the centre of the block, between Gálvez and Nataniel, with different layouts; and the other is the widening of Gálvez Street as a single project. There is also the possibility of a negotiated project that only extends the new avenue a little, across the blocks existing between Gálvez and Nataniel; it relies on the basis that the latter, when meeting the Alameda, must comply with architectural and representative conditions, bearing in mind the construction of the Presidential Palace between the Moneda and the Alameda. This new layout that prolongs Gálvez Street would serve for clearing Gálvez and Nataniel Streets in the section that runs beside the tram.xxxv In view of the proposed solution, the layout of the San Bernardo electric tram is being substantially improved; its current one-way system with bypass is being replaced by a two-way system: one south– north along Gálvez Street and another north–south along the bifurcation projected from Almagro Square. In relation to the rectification of the layout of Gálvez Street from Alameda through Plaza Almagro, it could not be recommended, considering that its current layout would allow further depth to the blocks in conic shape, resulting from opening up 11

Gálvez’s bifurcation. This diversion would also cover the perspective from Almagro Square, heading it into the Presidential Palace. The avenue’s new layout ought to be, as much as possible, isolated from the cross traffic, which is why only walkways would be advisable in front of Tarapacá Street. It would be convenient to locate in the street’s axis a promenade aimed at continuing the Alameda’s along that street through Plaza Almagro. But if the end of the projected avenue is within the current layout of Gálvez Street, it would be convenient to proceed in this part with the Alameda’s widening. In such case it would be convenient to explore if the Presidential Palace could be located in the block of the Alameda between Gálvez and Nataniel, where it would get better light and vista, considering that the Alameda’s northern side is preferred for walking because of having more shade. Plaza Almagro has some architectural importance because of being crowned by the Sacramentinos Church. In order to stress further such importance it would be convenient to open a short street from Almagro Square bordering the church’s apse and to limit the height of the edifice’s east side to a two-storey maximum. The Belén Church ought to be considered as well for establishing the definitive line of Plaza Almagro’s widening southwards. The aim of highlighting the Sacramentinos Church over the city altogether gains importance when remembering how the Sacré-Coeur,xxxvi at the top of Montmartre, presides over many streets and to some extent the entire northern quartier of Paris. In this sense Santiago has the advantage that, from its central hills, the important edifices can be contemplated. Actually it is impressive to look at the city from these vantage points. When contemplating in the evenings the lights along the five roads radiating from the Plaza Baquedano, one has the impression that this city is under the aegis of the symbolic lonely star,xxxvii and only permanent advancement and progress can be expected for it. Translator’s notes i

Published as an article in Anales de la Universidad de Chile, VIII, first quarter 1930, pp. 11–40. The Spanish translation seems to have been made from the German original, what explains unidiomatic and impenetrable structures in many passages of the article. This poses a problem for this translation into English, which may often sound unidiomatic and unstructured too; my apologies to the reader in advance. ii Brunner seems to be referring in general to inner and dense residential districts or neighbourhoods that often need an extension, as is the case of the barrio and bairro in most of Iberian American cities. There are different denominations though, as in Mexico’s colonias or Venezuela’s barrios, the latter closer to meanings of slum and shantytown in English. However, given its resonance in Spanish and its acceptance in today’s English, the word barrio will be often maintained in this translation. iii As in the case of Brunner’s Manual, the original word urbanismo will be kept, especially when referring to Latin American contexts, in view of terminological, epistemological and cultural reasons. Adopted during the 1920s and 1930s in most of Latin America’s professional, administrative and academic circles, the word urbanismo tended to be replaced, after World War II by planificación or planeamiento in Spanish, and by planejamento in Portuguese, all of which became more usual under the influence of British town planning and, especially, North American urban planning. In addition to theoretical and disciplinary distinctions that apply to other contexts (Taylor, 1998; Hebbert, 2006, for instance), that terminological transition was reinforced in Latin America by the displacement of the poles from which modernity was imported: as had happened in medicine and engineering, academic urbanismo which until the late 1930s had come mostly from Europe, gave way to a package of master plans, zoning ordinances and planningrelated instruments and institutions that were mainly channelled through the USA (Almandoz, 2006; 2014).

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iv

It is noteworthy that the original word is plano, whose spatial and graphic connotation is different from plan, which in Spanish is more associated with a set of regulations that can also be political, economic and social. Encompassed by the word “plan” in English, both connotations came together in the “regulatory plans” that were adopted by many of Latin America’s local administrations until the 1960s, some of which were more linked to regional planning (see for instance Almandoz, 2010; 2014: 106–109, 133–136). However, Brunner’s use of plano is indicative of an early local-based and spatial-oriented conception of urbanism. v In the original as destino, which could be literally translated as “destiny”, but obviously refers to the purpose, use or type of activity to take place in the building. vi In the original as permuta, which can be literally translated as the “swap” or “exchange” of benefits or profits negotiated by the landowners in order to accept the expropriation. vii Brunner does not seem to recognize the modest monumentality that some critics and architectural historians do in the so-called Höfe or courts, built by Austria’s social-democratic government between 1929 and 1934. The Höfe were supposed to provide hygienic and modern accommodation for the working class and low middle classes – as the rationalist and suburban superblocks of Siedlungen also tried to do – but creating a scenery of “discrete monumentality, where the residential building had the image of a ‘palace’. The most famous among those ensembles was the ‘Karl Marx Hof’, extended for almost a kilometre around a succession of courts; for some time it was maliciously called ‘Red Fortress’, not only because of the colour of its walls, but also for being considered a working-class stronghold.” Both solutions – the detached laminar superblocks and the continuous blocks around a perimeter – were different because the former could be built in free land, whereas the latter was better adapted to central and denser areas.” (Zawisza, 1985: 56–57). Built by Venezuelan architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900–1975) in the Caracas centre by the mid-1940s, El Silencio was an emblem of the Hof scheme in Latin America. viii Although the original word used is rascacielos (skyscraper), it does not seem adequate here, considering that – as indicated by Brunner in the text and in the previous note – the Höfe were huge-scale buildings of about five to nine floors. ix In the original as tamaños de edificación, which could be literally translated as “building size”, but refers to the height, by contrast to the ground area. As indicated in previous notes, Brunner is contrasting the pros and cons of detached superblocks with blocks built around courts. x In the original as coincidir con, which could be literally translated as “to coincide with”. xi Besides confirming his belonging to the Städtebau tradition, Brunner’s critique of the skyscraper at this stage is comparable to Alfred Agache’s reticence in his plan for Rio (see Introduction). However, the Brazilian capital’s craving for a more modern identity – to be displayed in the high-rise buildings of Copacabana and Cinelândia, among other new bairros – was decisive in the cariocas’ criticisms of Agache’s plan and their welcoming Le Corbusier’s proposals in his 1929 visit (Pereira, 2010: 100–106). xii In the original as consistencia corpórea, which could be literally translated as “corporeal consistency”, but refers to resulting volume as a mass. xiii In English and hyphened in the original. xiv In the original as maquette, which seems to imitate, in a French fashion, the word maqueta used in Spanish, which is actually derived from the Italian macchietta. xv Inaugurated in 1905, the former Avenida Central became an emblem of Belle Époque Rio. It was undertaken by prefect Francisco Pereira Passos (1836–1913) during the first presidency of Manuel Rodrigues Alves (1902–1906). Having studied in Second-Empire Paris and taken part in the design of a planning scheme for Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1870s, Passos was allegedly inspired by the Baron Haussmann’s ideas for the avenue and other transformations of the Cidade Maravilhosa. See for instance Needell (1987: 33–51). The later densification of the avenue can be seen in Pinheiro (2002, pp. 158–174). xvi Not only in Copacabana since 1900s, skyscrapers were also present in Cinelândia – formerly known as bairro Serrador – and Ipanema, being very attractive for the carioca population that saw them as a symbol of modernity. As to the favelas on the slopes, they had accompanied the new industrial and services jobs in Rio’s north and south areas, respectively; by 1933 casebres and favelas represented 20.58 per cent of the city’s buildings, though they would only be officially recognized by the government by the 1940s. See for instance Vaz (2002: 54–55, 63–67). xvii Prefect Carlos Sampaio (1920–1922) had initiated the demolition of the Castelo Hill in order to facilitate wind circulation and eradicate cortiços (slum tenements) from the centre. Sampaio’s operation not only vacated valuable ground for celebrating the 1922 International Exhibition, but also expelled a homeless population which would eventually swell incipient favelas on the outskirts (Kessel, 2001: 57–62). xviii In the original as propiedades de mucho fondo, which could also be translated as “properties that go back a long way” or “with much depth”.

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xix

In the original as grabado, which is literally translated as “engraving”, but not properly applied to a newspaper. xx In order to facilitate the translation, the masculine pronoun and adjective are used. xxi Resulting from articulating a series of glens, the Alameda or Poplars Promenade was designed and planted during the tenure of Bernardo O’Higgins as Supreme Director of the State (1818–1823), which is why the avenue was officially named after him. Thereafter it aligned many of Santiago’s public landmarks, such as the Santa Lucia Hill, the University of Chile and the Catholic University, among others. See for instance Thayer (2009: 27). xxii Brunner seems to refer to the application of a neighbour-unit-like scheme of circulation, which in Havana was early tried in the proposals of Pedro Martínez Inclán (1919) and Jean-Claude Nicholas Forestier (1925), among others. See for instance Scarpaci et al. (2002: 51–74) and Hyde (2012: 111–120). xxiii Built in 1869 at the southeast corner of Santiago’s Plaza de Armas, the Portal Mac-Clure was a twostoreyed commercial gallery with glass ceiling belonging to Carlos Mac-Clure. It was demolished in 1929 and replaced by the Portal Bulnes, designed by the architect Jorge Arteaga in 1932. xxiv In the original as plantaciones, which could be literally translated as “plantations”, but does not correspond, neither in English nor in Spanish, to the urban context. It will therefore be replaced by “urban parks” hereafter. xxv In the original as importancia, which does not make the proper sense in the sentence. xxvi Originally a rugged rock not far from the city centre, the transformation of Santa Lucia Hill into a park was the emblematic project of Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna as Santiago’s intendente or governor during the presidency of Federico Errázuriz (1871–1876). The Parque Forestal was located on grounds gained through the canalization of the Mapocho River; its linear design was commissioned to landscaper Jorge Dubois and the plantation began in 1901, during the tenure of intendente Enrique Cousiño. See for instance Pérez and Rosas (2010: 115–116, 125–126). xxvii More than popular, comunas or counties such as Ñuñoa and Providencia nucleated Santiago’s bourgeois expansion eastwards, where the park and the garden city idea became features of the suburban development. For Santiago’s expansion, see for instance de Ramón (2000: 184-193). xxviii Crowned by a gigantic image of the Virgin Mary since 1908, the Cerro de San Cristóbal began to be afforested by the early 1920s; by the middle of the decade a funicular and a zoo were created. xxix As is well known, quadrangular blocks or manzanas were generalized across Hispanic America by Philip II’s Leyes de Indias (1573, Laws of Indies), resulting from a compilation of ordinances given to conquistadors throughout the sixteenth century. As can also be seen in his Manual, Brunner was critical of the rigidity of the colonial damero or chequerboard, which he included in the section about “Irreflexive geometry” (Brunner, 1939–1940: 60–62). xxx In the original as fondo, which refers to the plot’s length or depth. xxxi In the original as esterilizar, literally translated as “to sterilize”, which is a mistaken sense of “to do in vain”. xxxii This type of plot subdivision became typical of Buenos Aires because of its densification in the second half of the nineteenth century; as explained by Gutiérrez (2010: 48): “the city grew dramatically, with the surrounding territory being divided into square plots, subdividing the colonial parcelas (plots) and defining new types of housing. The old, large colonial houses were divided, creating the half-courtyard house (casa chorizo or sausage house as it is known in Argentina) in which the generous space of the family living room was replaced by a modest patio with functions being redistributed towards the interior rooms. This loss of private domestic space was compensated for by a more open urban life outside the home, helped by the growing availability of new buildings such as clubs and cafés, and new meeting places in public spaces and thoroughfares.” xxxiii In the original as espacio, which is literally translated as “space”. xxxiv Let us remember that the comuna is the Chilean equivalent of municipality or county. xxxv The sense of the text is not clear in the original. xxxvi In the original as el ejemplo de esta iglesia, which is literally translated as “the example of this church”, what results misleading. The analogy seems to be based on Brunner’s assumption that both the Santiago and Paris churches belong to the same invocation or congregation of the Sacred Heart; but in fact the Sacramentinos is devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. xxxvii An allusion to the sole white star in Chile’s national flag.

Translator’s Bibliography 14

Almandoz, Arturo (2006) Urban planning and historiography in Latin America. Progress in Planning, 65(2), pp. 81–123. Almandoz, Arturo (2010) From urban to regional planning in Latin America, 1920–1950. Planning Perspectives, 25(1), pp. 87–95. Almandoz, Arturo (2014) Modernization, Urbanization and Development in Latin America, 1900s–2000s. London and New York: Routledge. Brunner, Karl (1939–1940) Manual de Urbanismo. Bogotá: Imprenta Municipal, 2 vols. Gutiérrez, Ramón (2010) Buenos Aires, a Great European City, in Almandoz, Arturo (ed.), Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities, 1850–1950. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 45–74. Hebbert, Michael (2006) Town Planning Versus Urbanismo. Planning Perspectives, 21(3), pp. 233–251. Hyde, Timothy (2012) Constitutional Modernism. Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933–1959. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. Kessel, Carlos (2001) A vitrine e o espelho. O Rio de Janeiro de Carlos Sampaio. Rio de Janeiro: Prefeitura da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Needell, Jeffrey (1987) A Tropical Belle Époque. Elite, Culture and Society in Turn-ofthe-century Rio de Janeiro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pereira, Margareth da S. (2010) The Time of the Capitals: Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo: Words, Actors and Plans, in Almandoz, Arturo (ed.), Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities, 1850–1950. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 75–108. Pérez Oyarzun, Fernando and Rosas Vera, José (2010) Cities within the City: Urban and Architectural Transfers in Santiago de Chile, 1840–1940, in Almandoz, Arturo (ed.), Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities, 1850–1950. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 109–138. Pinheiro, Eloisa P. (2002) Europa, França e Bahia. Difusão e adaptação de modelos urbanos. (Paris, Rio e Salvador). Salvador: Edufba Ramón, Armando de (2000) Santiago de Chile (1541–1991). Historia de una sociedad urbana. Santiago: Editorial Sudamericana. Scarpaci, Joseph L., Segre, Roberto and Coyula, Mario (2002) Havana. Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press. Taylor, Nigel (1998) Urban Planning Theory since 1945. London: Sage Publications. 15

Thayer, Luis (2009) Santiago de Chile. Origen del nombre de sus calles (1904). Santiago: Editorial Cuarto Propio. Vaz, Lilian F. (2002) Modernidade e moradia. Habitação coletiva no Rio de Janeiro. Séculos XIX e XX. Rio de Janeiro: 7 Letras, Faperj. Zawisza, Leszek (1985) El Silencio: Arquitectura y urbanismo, in EI Silencio y sus alrededores, imagen del pasado y presente en una zona de Caracas. Caracas: Fundarte, 1985, pp. 41–64.

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