Abstract
ABSTRACT
The large-scale livestock industry, as an economic growth hub in Chilean Patagonia, developed through its estancias a particular subdivision of rural space and a unique appropriation structure. Conversely, despite the large amount of manpower employed by the livestock industry, it was unable to offer ample housing for its associated workforce in the cities of Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. Thus, Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego´s working class housing, located in the city of Punta Arenas -analyzed here from a historical, urban and architectural perspective- is an exception that emerged late, when the corporation decided to build a rental housing complex for its workers and their families, on the outskirts of the city. As a collective habitat and spatial expression of industrial paternalism, the built working class housing structured an area of the city and its architecture presented significant spatial, functional and technical innovations in the Magellan territory.