Nature-city assemblages, complex morphology and residential integration. An exploration of centralities in Valdivia, Chile

The city of Valdivia, one of the most important cities in southern Chile, presents a complex morphology, which has defined the process of transformation and occupation that this manuscript intends to explore. Based on the Florence Coefficient of Localisation (FCL), we propose a study of the polycentric structure of Valdivia based on its exceptional situation as a medium-sized city, located in the middle of a system of rivers and wetlands. The paper provides, first, a historical vision of the relationship between nature and the city that exists in Valdivia, highlighting the residential value currently attributed to bodies of water, along with their relevance for the development of State-subsidized housing projects. The contemporary tensions noted from the methodology used allow us to explore, in terms of the Florence Location Coefficient, the structural qualities in each of the city’s neighbourhoods, which are analysed in terms of effects and opportunities associated with the current policies of territorial and social integration to produce housing subsidized by the State, this time, within the framework of a complex urban space in Chile.