The unplanned creative city: An emerging sustainability? Crossroads between education and innovation in Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile's capital city, has undergone numerous changes in its urban fabric due the process of economic globalisation since mid 1980s, affecting its social, physical and economic configurations. But behind all those changes, the concentration of high knowledge-based activities has been proof critical to improve the innovation capacity of the city; in Santiago's case those are the information and communications technologies (ICT) and biotechnology, mainly clustered in central areas. Several government initiatives have encouraged new approaches to improve these technology concentrations, most of them based in the 'Technology Park' typology, disconnected from the traditional networks of knowledge. In this context, the University Neighborhood of Santiago (UNS) project could reveal some clues where to encourage future development. Thus, the unplanned formation of creative hubs in areas in regeneration is presented as two complementary processes that could lead a more sustainable approach to the future development of city historical centres. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.