The instability of the form. Low-income housing projects in Santiago de Chile, 1953-1970 = A instabilidade da forma. Projetos para bairros populares em Santiago de Chile, 1953-1970

The projects of Archigram, the Japanese Me-tabolists and Team X seem to have nothing to do with the social housing programmes that were developed in Chile during the active pe-riod of the Corporación de la Vivienda (1953-1976). Although the first projects have been explained based on the relationship between art and architecture, the low-income housing problem has been mainly addressed as a political, technical, social or economic issue. However, there is common ground between these two different proposals: the idea that there is a dimension of form that can be pro-jected and stabilized and another dimension of form that cannot be projected and stabi-lized, which is left to be practiced, managed and decided by its users. This paper proposes a critical reading of some Chilean housing programmes for low-income sectors, such as the Erradicaciones and Operación Sitio.