Build green areas to build communities

Fundación Mi Parque and the participative recovery of public spaces in Chile.

Abstract

South American cities have experienced a significant development and growth in recent years. In Chile and Latin America, we could see modern cities with a good standard of living and investment, but with disproportionate and uneven growth. This inequality is clearly expressed in the great differences in the quality of life in the different neighborhoods of our cities.

About the urban topic, the priority of public policies has been housing, with the first objective to reduce the housing deficit of the population. But providing a place to live is much more than providing a roof, and building a city is not the same as only building houses.

Considering this reality, in 2007, a group of architects created a project that seeks to improve the surroundings and the public space of the neighborhoods. This is how Mi Parque Foundation was born, an initiative whose mission is to create the community through the participatory recovery of green areas in neighborhoods that need it most.

The working model articulates three main actors in a public-private partnership: the community of residents, the private company and the municipalities.

Mi Parque Foundation plays a facilitating and coordinating role. Each of the actors has a role with defined responsibilities. One of the most differentiating aspects of the intervention model compared to the work carried out by the city halls is the incorporation of the community into the entire process, since the initial phases of the project, diffusion and proposal validation, up to the building process and later maintenance.

Keywords: urbanism; green areas; community.