“Reach me if you can”: Adjustments and calibrations of urban regulations after verticalization in the Santiago Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Verticalization poses challenges for urban planning, jeopardizing its ability to guide development towards balanced forms of densification. The objective of this work is to analyze the adjustments and calibrations of urban regulations after the verticalization in the Santiago Metropolitan Area that began in the nineties. First, the trajectory of the main Chilean urban regulations that define the intensity of the verticalization process is presented. Putting them in an international context, it is discussed how they have evolved from a compositional vision to one of abstract regulation of urban form. The communal regulatory plans of twenty communes in the process of verticalization are analyzed, with an emphasis on five urban regulations. Four tendencies are proposed: restrictive norms of doubtful effectiveness as a result of the advanced process, norms that reduce the building potential, norms that promote greater intensity of verticalization and norms that "let go", giving continuity to the verticalization process.