The layered city: pedestrian networks in downtown Santiago and their impact on urban vitality

A distinctive feature of downtown Santiago is its three-layered pedestrian network, consisting of streets, pedestrian zones and commercial galleries. This research shows that an important part of the vitality of downtown Santiago is because of its physical and configurational structure of streets, pedestrian zones and commercial galleries. This three-layered pedestrian network has been able to introduce a progressive differentiation of pedestrian flows into the urban block, thereby allowing for lower rents and the diversification of retail, which in turn facilitates the social diversity of service providers and users in the historic centre of Santiago.