Meeting place: The case of La parada del tonto in Concepción, Chile

Abstract

Meeting places are based on nodes that later become landmarks. La parada del tonto [The foolÍ€™s stop] in Concepción is a peculiar example of how a central meeting point has become a place with its own name, with no relation to its surrounding urban form.
This article focuses firstly on how places are generated, according not only to the spatial dimension, but also to the temporal scale, associating place formation with the importance of clocks as significant aspects of spatial landmarks. Afterwards is an in-depth analysis of the case study, La parada del tonto, in order to understand how this space became a recognizable landmark. The article concludes with a theoretical development regarding the universal dimension of temporal landmarks as contributing to a sense of place or topoi, and providing cohesion as a collective legacy.