Popularized at the beginning of the last decade by University of Michigan academics C. K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy, the concept of “co-creation” revolutionized the way organizations relate to individuals during a process or activity. In practice, it implies the generation of workspaces for a direct involvement of stakeholders (including their workers) to obtain a mutually valued outcome. According to Francis Gouillart – co-author with Ramaswamy of – five are the “ingredients” of this initiative: a community, a platform for participation, the constant expansion of interactions, new win-win experiences and new value for whoever creates the community. When talking about “co-creation” in a business environment – such as the development of a product or service – the parties are identified as producer and consumer. Although the concept was conceived precisely as a business management strategy where “value is not created by the firm and passed on to the consumer, but rather where value is created jointly by the consumers and the company,” as Prahalad explained in an interview with Emprendedores News, today it can be extrapolated to different areas of human endeavor. And in the field of urban development, “co-creation” serves the same purpose. Who is better able to talk about the essential elements of a place than its inhabitants? Who knows its stories, attributes and ways of life better? By working with the stakeholders in a project, we discover elements that are not visible to the naked eye but that are a fundamental part of the life of the place where this or that urban design will be located; these are factors that generate meeting points that must be considered and integrated into a larger planning process. However, “co-creation” is not limited to a simple dialogue and a recounting of anecdotes: it is a constant work, where projects, ideas and contributions of the participants are reviewed with the sole purpose of coming up with new concepts and ways of seeing and understanding the place that will be intervened. Inmobiliaria Las Salinas is betting heavily on “co-creation” in the development of its urban project in Viña del Mar, carrying out a systematic and permanent process of dialogue with the communities surrounding the site and, in general, with the society of Viña del Mar. This chronicle was written after a series of interviews and conversations with a wide range of people and organizations in Viña del Mar,
