Politzer house: Architectural rehabilitation to sustain permanence and prevent depopulation

Abstract

This article presents the rehabilitation and reconstruction process of the Politzer House, located on Bellavista Hill in Valparaíso, Chile. The project aims to rehabilitate vacant, underutilized, and depopulated buildings in order to support the permanence of the existing population. The rehabilitation proposal was developed according to heritage conservation principles, preserving key aspects of the original Balloon Frame construction system and its spatial organization. At the same time, it incorporates contemporary design criteria related to modularity and internal circulation. The intervention, completed in 2015, is described together with its main design strategies and outcomes. In this context, the Politzer House represents a case of residential adaptive reuse capable of reactivating underutilized building stock, extending the service life of historic properties, and restoring residential use in neighborhoods affected by abandonment and urban decline.