Santiago cinemas: Contributions to a unique public space

Abstract

Like what happened in other Latin American capitals, Santiago cinema venues were built with a novel architecture: the cinema-palace. Curiously, this array of remarkable buildings exclusively devoted to the screening of films was in contrast to the growing trend of shopping centers that, in the mid-20th century, included another type of theater. This involved a mutation process of the imposing palatial masses, since the cinemas in interior passages were retracted, integrating themselves into the peculiar public space of closed routes. The so-called cinema-gallery, with less surface area and audience capacity, developed remarkable formal qualities under the idea of an “investment building”. This article discusses examples that show that this street “concealment” brought together a valuable set of venues in the city’s historic quarter, and helped consolidate a shopping phenomenon of block movements: the shopping galleries in Santiago, where, in addition to shopping, you could "watch movies".