ABSTRACT
The implementation of neoliberalism in Santiago's urban development dismantled a significant number of planning instruments and institutions for delivering all decision-making power in the hands of the private sector. In doing so, several practitioners witnessed with frustration how after decades of struggling for making the city a human right was wipe out for transforming it into a commodity. Among the most representative voices of this past is Miguel Lawner, who since his return to Chile from the exile has been a claim for a better future for cities. Lawner was the Director of Urban Improvement Corporation (CORMU) during the administration of Salvador Allende. Since his early years as an architect, he worked close to communities by guiding the process of designing informal settlements in the very core of Santiago, a radical practice of a discipline sometimes forced to go beyond the limits of the norms in order to achieve spatial justice.
