In 2019, a major social uprising took place in Chile in which citizens demanded better life conditions, equity and dignity. This reactivated historical community kitchens to provide food to urban dwellers through self-organized solidarity networks and motivated people to come together to generate new community based initiatives to provide dignity and wellbeing in all aspects of life. 

The Matta Sur neighbourhood in Santiago is one of the areas in which these community networks were activated. It stands in the center of a 9 million inhabitants city and houses historical inhabitants, families and - recently - migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. Protected for its heritage value in 2016, it is one of the few areas within the city in which local lifestyles and community networks have not yet been crushed by urban development. It has a regular urban structure of wide streets framed by continuous facades. Buildings are predominantly one-storey homes, organized around a central courtyard, built with burnt bricks and traditional wood and raw earth systems.

In spite of the potential quality of urban spaces in Matta Sur, the neighbourhood still lacks community infrastructure. Parallelly, traditional building techniques have been discontinued and are often misunderstood, leading to poor interventions which deteriorate the quality of buildings and of liveable spaces. This, joined with the COVID-19 pandemic, creates an urgent need for comprehensive interventions.

Community organization in Chile has traditionally filled in a gap between public policies and community wellbeing, particularly in urban contexts. In times of scarceness and poverty, neighbours came together to strengthen their demands to different governments and to provide for basic services through strong solidarity networks. "Ollas comunes" or community kitchens which provide food to all who need it through self-organized food donations and cooking have been the strongest example of this community action ever since the saltpeter crisis in 1930 and were repeated frequently after, also today.

The Matta Sur community center will provide appropriate spaces to house community work, complying with COVID-19 measures while preserving a relevant example of traditional architecture within a protected area of the center of Santiago. This is achieved through the enlargement of exterior spaces, which recover the original architectural typology, as well as the refurbishment of inner spaces to allow for flexible surface distribution, therefore adapting the capacity of different rooms for different activities and to comply with sanitary measures. 

In parallel, open building workshops will allow the replication of appropriate technologies for the preservation of vernacular building techniques throughout a neighbourhood with a protected surface of 189 hectares within the city; which is mainly constructed with bricks, earth and wood. Additionally, a community-based design and management processes will strengthen community networks and capacities in an area of 10.000 inhabitants.

The core team is composed of a diverse group of proactive neighbours, cultural and social organizations of Matta Sur assisted by a technical team of architects and architecture students of the University of Santiago of Chile (USACH) joint in the project “Heritage and community infrastructure” funded by the University. The design work for the adaptation of the community center for its diverse current use, has been developed jointly between the neighborhoods and the architecture team through meetings. 

"Junta de Vecinos Plaza Bogotá'' is the main social organization of the neighborhood and responsible for the community center infrastructure. Other organizations such as ‘Permacultura’ group, ‘Organizados’, the LGTB vegetable recovery collective, the cooperative ‘La Minga’, Heritage of Matta Cultural Center, the organization of San Antonio de Padua carnaval, among others use the community center and had been part of the design of the intervention. At the same time, these organizations carry out important work for the territory, distinguishing the community kitchen and the community cooking laboratory.

Architect Amanda Rivera, academic and specialist in earthen vernacular heritage is the leader of the design team and works constantly with Matta Sur neighbors and from other different towns and along the country. Together with architect Carmen Gómez, who is experienced in earth construction and heritage conservation. She has worked with communities in the assessment of their local heritage and in the development of a community museum in the rural area of Chanco.

Instagram of the project
Improvement of the community kitchen
Proposed intervention
Community heritage project