Abstract

Undoubtedly, the urban space that best represents state power in santiago and the country as a whole is the so-called Civic District, which includes the seat of executive power, the Palacio de la Moneda, and the buildings of ministries and main public agencies. Its creation – at the beginning of the 1930s – coincides with the nascent process of Chilean modernization, which would last until 1973. This process cannot be understood without the construction of what we will call here transcendental space, namely the representational space that through architecture depicts the idea of the nation as an imagined community (Anderson 1983) led by the state towards progress. In this context, public space has a formative role and is designed to highlight the position of la Moneda as the symbol of (presidential) power. However, it is interesting to note that this transcendental space and the centrality of la Moneda as monument are only achieved by means of building massive anonymous buildings around the palace, in order to house the administrative apparatus of the state. From the early versions of the civic district plan on, functional purposes as ‘better administrative control and coordination’ were given priority, even over ‘urban embellishment.’ In line with what Karl brünner, the viennese planner, wanted to emphasize – ‘a magnificent scale’ –, the final project develops as a series of concrete buildings regular in height, with undecorated facades and no distinctive features other than their identity as a building complex. nevertheless, it is precisely this condition of mass and its scale which allows the project to succeed in its main goal: to constitute the ‘void’ – that is to say, public space – as a celebratory place to the power of the state, a grey scene for the palace to stand out.