Una ciudadela para clases medias chilenas: subjetividades de vivienda y vida cotidiana. Villa Olímpica, Ñuñoa en la década del 60

Based on city council documents, press archives and oral testimonies, this analysis explores the state-funded housing project Villa Olímpica (now the Población Exequiel González Cortés). The project was designed to accommodate members of the Chilean middle classes and was located in eastern Santiago in the district of Ñuñoa. The combined issues of housing, personal savings and education are key to the evolution of housing projects subsidized by the then Corporación de la Vivienda (Housing Corporation, CORVI) within the framework of national capitalism. These elements also help to shed light on the evolution of middle-class lifestyles or modes of living, as it was these groups who benefitted most from such schemes thanks to the gentrifying aspect of State policy that was applied to certain housing projects. The urban development of particular sectors of Santiago, including the district of Ñuñoa, can be seen to have occurred in parallel to the flourishing of the middle classes. This was due in part to the production of modern urban spaces to which these sectors of society were particularly attracted, but was also driven by an increase in the social value of home ownership, an aspiration central to the middle-class experi- ence, along with neighborhood life in such sectors. Built during the 1960s, the Villa Olímpica is not only iconic, but crucial to understanding the subjectivities and evolution of space and middle-class housing in Chile.