Metropolization process in Santiago de Chile has been strongly influenced by neoliberal rationale in the field of urban planning. A diffuse interaction between the forces of the urban land market, national-global trends of capital agglomeration and fragmented governance have led to a highly segregated socio-spatial structure. These processes have fostered the economic marginalization of the most vulnerable municipal areas unable to profit within the current model of market-driven development. During the last five years, the Chilean government has raised the necessity to address these issues through new governance and planning national agenda. Based on this context, this graduation thesis investigates the evolution of those urban issues in the Metropolitan area of Santiago (MAS) and evaluates a collaborative spatial planning strategy for three vulnerable municipalities by using adaptive scenarios. A paramount emphasis is focused on the social and economic activation of the morphological urban tissue of these areas by using a multi-scalar approach.

The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (AMA) has proposed a transition from its current linear economic model to a circular one (Sustainable Amsterdam, 2015). However, the proposed strategy is based mainly on the participation of actors from the world of business and industry, relegating social actors to a peripheral level of its implementation. Additionally, the region is experiencing an important process of floating population in which we can identify different groups: students, expats, tourists and commuters. This process is influencing trends of gentrification, ethnic segregation, and suburbanization and is expected going to increase in the future. The project that we propose seeks to connect communities and material chains from an integrated approach, social and economical. The project is based on the incorporation of the students through the region as a pioneer group for sustainable, economic and social development. Students represent a social capital that is necessary for the development of the region. However, at the same time they are a group that currently is experiencing vulnerability and lack of integration. In this way, through a multi-scale study and an urban acupuncture strategy, the location of this group is projected into strategic areas in order to encourage social sustainability and inclusive economic development.