After a Disaster, Technical Advice for the Sustainability and the Urban Integration of a Slum

Abstract

Early 2024 in the metropolitan area of Valparaíso, an arson killed 137 people and destroyed seven thousand housing units, half of which were in slums, known as ‘campamentos’ in Chile. As part of the emergency aid effort, eight professionals met on the ground of a devastated settlement and responded to the request of nine local organizations, some 500 affected families, for technical advice on long-term on-site reconstruction. In the midst of the trauma suffered by these families facing threats of eviction, the communities reorganized themselves. They adopted the name of Villa La Unión to reformulate their collective proposal for the process of the slum regularization. In a few weeks, this spontaneous advisory experience, which is not part of the official reconstruction programs, reviewed the legal and regulatory framework; supported the exercise of rescuing the memory of the settlement; and proposed elements towards a master plan for urban integration and a new centrality for the peripheral sector of the municipality of Quilpué; with risk prevention systems, combining firebreaks and built wetlands reusing greywater; with different densities and options for access to housing.