Chile is the Latin-American country with the largest social housing production. Such production is characterized by the fact that it has been mainly constructed under the same typology through different versions: the low rise housing, resulting an urban development of quickly growth, mainly shaped by the massive and disperse addition of residential paths in its borders. Starting from the specific case of the metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile, this article presents a reflexive approach to this phenomenon, analyzing and showing the different “morpho-tipological” constants that have taken form in the city periphery in the latest quarter of the last century, product of the formation of the large low -cost housing surface. Mainly centered in the growth of this building typology –from a critic analysis of the phenomenon– approaches from the territorial occupation developed processes as from its massive production, evaluating its typological evolution as a prototype of the poorest groups areas as well as a resultant housing landscape as consequence of the actual relation between the building sector and the political decisions on planning and housing.