The Reappearance of Public Matters: Housing Experiences during the Post Earthquake Period

Since the early XIX century, both house and domestic space have gone through a series of technological, programmatic and typological transformations in accordance with the changes in dwelling practices. These range from their progressive connection to utility networks (water, telephone, gas internet, etc.) to the change in number and proportion of places, in their relation with street space or the integration of new devices and technologies. One of the main consequences of this transformation has been the emphasis in private and intimate space as scenario for domestic matters with detriment to different ways of dwelling, which are more permeable to public space.

This presentation intends to understand how the nonuse of these spaces caused by the last earthquake that shook Chile on February 27th, 2010 questioned this compact, autonomous and multipurpose housing condition forcing its dwellers to (re)discover more spaces and practices that depend on the public scope. In the outburst of public/private categories after the earthquake and destruction of entire zones in the city as in Concepcion or Talca, urban conducts and their related spaces also damaged and tumbled down causing a new and transitory urban order where apparently contradictory situations cohabit. Because of the obvious enclosing of neighborhoods by residents, the fear for pillage and the privatization of streets, this presenation is focused on the counterpart of this situation that took place in the same place and nearly same geography. It is about the appearance of the idea of a “house” that is more permeable to the public sphere and, to a great extent, forced to shared uses, eradicating traditional boundaries (established, in fact, by law) that divide citizens.