"Lustrines" Architecture in Santiago, Chile

In all the commercial centers of Chile, one can find any number of men who will shine your shoes for 40 cents. They usually locate themselves along broad walkways and seem to do a pretty brisk business. A client will sit down and put his feet up on an angled rack or box called a lustrine (actually that word is used to describe the whole business operation not just the box). The man then hands you a newspaper to read while he works to shine your shoes.

Public policy often has obvious influences on everyday life. In Santiago, odd regulation has had a significant and noticeable impact on architecture and the way buildings look. Many taller buildings (rascacielos), whether they be apartment buildings or office buildings, sport a peculiar pointed or stair-stepped shape--much like a lustrine box. In fact, visitors who see the phenomenon might be led to believe that Chileans like pointed or angled buildings. But the truth is that Chilean building regulation forces Chilean skyscrapers to have an odd or lustrine shape.

Quite simply, building regulation in Santiago is designed to restrict the height of buildings. In order to do so, planners decided to implement a scheme based on a 70 degree angle (in other parts of Chile they require a more restrictive 60 degree angle). The maximum height of the building is a function of how large the building lot is. Starting around the perimeter and going up 2 meters, builders must stay within the confines of the airspace restricted by the 70 degree imaginary line running from any point along the perimeter up to the center above the building lot. The resulting shape, much like a pyramid, represents the buildable space.

Oddly enough, one can build a tower as high as he wants to, meaning that there really is no restriction on building height, so long as he owns a large enough piece of land to do so. So the regulation is a failure, at least in theory, and in practice as well since the recently completed Marriott hotel and office or apartment complex on Avenida Kennedy in Las Condes, bordering Vitacura, has some 50 floors in its two towers. Moreover, the Titanium building, which has 55 floors, was recently completed in Vitacura (a couple of months before the 8.8 earthquake hit). Evidently, according to this online article and drawing, an even taller building is planned nearby.

No, it is not true that Chileans are odd people with a strange taste for angled skyscrapers. They are simply trying to live within torpid and senseless building regulation. Like all builders, it makes the most sense (in terms of efficiency) to build in such a way to maximize the amount of office or living space. Angles and points simply do not cut it. But in Chile, developers make the best of it, utilizing unusual designs, and making plenty of exclusive penthouses (with higher costs per square foot) out of the angular part of the building. If there is not much land area on the building lot, the taller the building the more pronounced the lustrine will be.

Take a look at some of these photos of Santiago high-rises. They are some of my favorite lustrines.

Some office buildings take a stair-step approach instead of being a smooth lustrine.

A few are downright pointed!

Low-rise structures are no exception to the 70 degree rule. If architects and builders do not have much of a building lot to work with the building will be distorted, as the one below.

High-rise apartment buildings and hotels are also affected, as you can see in the photos below.

Views of the apartment districts from above reveal many buildings which suffer from the effects of 70 degree angle regulation.

Chile is a highly regulated society, just like the USA and most other places in the developed world. The effects of regulation are seen right in front of one's face when he visits Santiago, although few will realize that distorted architecture is one of the results of silly regulation. But after reading this essay, I hope that visitors will come to appreciate Chilean ingenuity in coping with such regulation rather than think that Chileans love strange building designs.

Afterword: This article on the earthquake safety design of Chilean skyscrapers, like the 52 story Titanium building erected just before the massive February 27, 2010 earthquake, praises their quality and ingenuity.


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Christian Theology of Public Policy: Highlighting the American Experience (2006)Bible and Government: Public Policy from a Christian Perspective (2003)A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics and Policy (2009)