Assessing Sustainable Urban form in Social Housing Neighbourhoods: Two cases in Southern Chile

For a few decades, understanding land-use with integrated services and socially mixed groups has been considered vital to endure nature and societies in harmony. This article promotes inclusivity in planning neighbourhoods, by encouraging principles of urban form, towards a sustainable quality of life. In Chile, with the creation of SERVIU, homelessness was resolved by a quantitative approach of housing programs, promoting an exclusive urban expansion process, generating social segregation, and an over-concentration of precarious living conditions. Contrarily, in 1960 the focus of planning was oriented towards planning sustainable neighbourhoods under CORVI Programs, recognizing fundamental morphological principles. The aim of this article is to explore the spatial conditions and quality of life in neighbourhoods under SERVIU and CORVI programs, by evaluating elements of urban form. Elements to explore are: accessibility to services, commerce and recreation; vitality of social and commercial nodes; and diversity in land use and housing typology. Analising cases of Reina Sofia in the city of Valdivia and Rahue Bajo 2 in the city of Osorno, assessed through methods of People Following (Talen, 2011), Gates and Snapshot (Vaughan, 2001) and Simpsons Diversity Index - results show that CORVI programs include sustainable morphology in its urban form, which improves quality of life, in contrary to SERVIU Programs.

Automated summary

Understanding land-use through integrated services and socially mixed groups is considered vital for maintaining harmony between nature and society. This article explores the impact of two different planning programs (SERVIU and CORVI) in Chile on neighborhood spatial conditions and quality of life, finding that CORVI programs incorporate sustainable morphology in urban form, which improves quality of life.