scholarly journals The Evolutions, Transformations, and Adaptations in Beirut’s Public Spaces

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Mady
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
New Public ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Right ◽  
Space Production ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Impact

Beirut, Lebanon, has been a nexus for the east and west, has undergone episodes of conflict including the civil war between 1975 and 1989, and still witnesses instability to the present. This status has affected its everyday life practices, particularly as manifested in its public spaces. Over time, Beirut’s population has reflected the ability to adapt to living with different states of public spaces; these include embracing new public space models, adjusting to living in the war-time period with annihilated public spaces, and establishing a reconnaissance with post-war reintroduced, securitized, or temporary public spaces. Lefebvre’s space production triad serves to distinguish among spaces introduced through planning tools, from spaces appropriated through immaterial space-markers, or spaces established through social practices. This article provides an overview of the evolution of Beirut’s public spaces, starting with the medieval city and through into the 19th century, before examining the impact of instability and the conditions leading to the emergence of social spaces in the post-war period. It particularly highlights public spaces after 2005—when civic activism played an important role in raising awareness on the right to inclusive public space—by referring to literature, conducting interviews with public space protagonists, and addressing a questionnaire survey to inhabitants. The cases of Martyrs Square, Damascus Road, and the Pine Forest are presented, among other spaces in and around Beirut. The article reflects on the ability of some public spaces to serve as tools for social integration in a society that was segregated in the bouts of Beirut’s instability.

scholarly journals Private control and public openness. The development of London’s public spaces since the Mayor’s 2009 manifesto

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Camilo Vladimir De Lima Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Policy Document ◽  
Lived Spaces ◽  
Space Production ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

This research aims to analyse the ongoing privatization of public spaces in London. It also seeks to explore the impact of the 2009 Mayor’s policy document named ‘A Manifesto for Public Space - London’s Great Outdoors’ in this process. The manifesto argues in opposition to the growing ‘corporatisation’ and exclusion of privately controlled spaces and in favour of spaces that are open ‘for all Londoners’ and with a planning process overseen by the Public Sector. In order to understand if these goals were achieved, an initial inventory listed all the developments after 2009. The projects’ examination made it possible to identify the most important cases in each group. This article analyses whether these developments are private public spaces or whether they remain genuinely public, thus examining the manifesto’s effectiveness on London’s lived spaces. In order to do that, a critical approach was constructed upon the literature review, in order to confront the ideas of public space with the spatial experience. This dissection demonstrated how recent complexity of urban space production has created new phenomena in the city, that can be assembled in the concepts of Velvet Ground, Tangled Orbits and Repeated Compulsion of Space Consumption. The concepts clarify the relationship between social control, the democratic openness of public space, and citizenship. The study concludes that a new form of privatized space is taking over the city, and the proposed policies were unable to stop this tendency.

scholarly journals Planning the Urban Waterfront Transformation, from Infrastructures to Public Space Design in a Sea-Level Rise Scenario: The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Case

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Francesca Dal Cin ◽  
Fransje Hooimeijer ◽  
Maria Matos Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Space Design ◽  
Urban Waterfront ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe ◽  
The Impact

Future sea-level rises on the urban waterfront of coastal and riverbanks cities will not be uniform. The impact of floods is exacerbated by population density in nearshore urban areas, and combined with land conversion and urbanization, the vulnerability of coastal towns and public spaces in particular is significantly increased. The empirical analysis of a selected number of waterfront projects, namely the winners of the Mies Van Der Rohe Prize, highlighted the different morphological characteristics of public spaces, in relation to the approximation to the water body: near the shoreline, in and on water. The critical reading of selected architectures related to water is open to multiple insights, allowing to shift the design attention from the building to the public space on the waterfronts. The survey makes it possible to delineate contemporary features and lay the framework for urban development in coastal or riverside areas.

scholarly journals Simulation, Control and Desire. Urban Commons and Semi-Public Space Resilience in the Age of Augmented Transductive Territorial Production

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfredo Manfredini
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
External Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spatial Production ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
Urban Commons

Considering place-based participation a crucial factor for the development of sustainable and resilient cities in the post-digital turn age, this paper addresses the socio-spatial implications of the recent transformation of relationality networks. To understand the drivers of spatial claims emerged in conditions of digitally augmented spectacle and simulation, it focuses on changes occurring in key nodes of central urban public and semi-public spaces of rapidly developing cities. Firstly, it proposes a theoretical framework for the analysis of problems related to socio-spatial fragmentation, polarisation and segregation of urban commons subject to external control. Secondly, it discusses opportunities and criticalities emerging from a representational paradox depending on the ambivalence in the play of desire found in digitally augmented semi-public spaces. The discussion is structured to shed light on specific socio-spatial relational practices that counteract the dissipation of the “common worlds” caused by sustained processes of urban gentrification and homogenisation. The theoretical framework is developed from a comparative critical urbanism approach inspired by the right to the city and the right to difference, and elaborates on the discourse on sustainable development that informs the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda. The analysis focuses on how digitally augmented geographies reintroduce practices of participation and commoning that reassemble fragmented relational infrastructures and recombine translocal social, cultural and material elements. Empirical studies on the production of advanced simulative and transductive spatialities in places of enhanced consumption found in Auckland, New Zealand, ground the discussion. These provide evidence of the extent to which the agency of the augmented territorialisation forces reconstitutes inclusive and participatory systems of relationality. The concluding notes, speculating on the emancipatory potential found in these social laboratories, are a call for a radical redefinition of the approach to the problem of the urban commons. Such a change would improve the capacity of urbanism disciplines to adequately engage with the digital turn and efficaciously contribute to a maximally different spatial production that enhances and strengthens democracy and pluralism in the public sphere.

scholarly journals The (No-)Public Space. Reviewing the Transformation of Al-Qaed Ibrahim's Urban Image

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Iman Hegazy
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Public spaces are defined as places that should be accessible to all inhabitants without restrictions. They are spaces not only for gathering, socializing and celebrating but also for initiating discussions, protesting and demonstrating. Thus, public spaces are intangible expressions of democracy—a topic that the paper tackles its viability within the context of Alexandria, case study Al-Qaed Ibrahim square. On the one hand, Al-Qaed Ibrahim square which is named after Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque is a sacred element in the urban fabric; whereas on the other it represents a non-religious revolutionary symbol in the Alexandrian urban public sphere. This contradiction necessitates finding an approach to study the characteristic of this square/mosque within the Alexandrian context—that is to realize the impact of the socio-political events on the image of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square, and how it has transformed into a revolutionary urban symbol and yet into a no-public space. The research revolves around the hypothesis that the political events taking place in Egypt after January 25th, 2011, have directly affected the development of urban public spaces, especially in Alexandria. Therefore methodologically, the paper reviews the development of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square throughout the Egyptian socio-political changes, with a focus on the square’s urban and emotional contextual transformations. For this reason, the study adheres to two theories: the "city elements" by Kevin Lynch and "emotionalizing the urban" by Frank Eckardt. The aim is not only to study the mentioned public space but also to figure out the changes in people’s societal behaviour and emotion toward it. Through empowering public spaces, the paper calls the different Egyptian political and civic powers to recognize each other, regardless of their religious, ethnical or political affiliations. It is a step towards replacing the ongoing political conflicts, polarization, and suppression with societal reconciliation, coexistence, and democracy.

scholarly journals Public Space as a Venue for Peacebuilding in Lebanon? The Role of Civic Movements in Reclaiming Public Space in Beirut and Tripoli

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Aseel Naamani ◽  
Ruth Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

The issue of public spaces is increasingly at the core of civic movements and discourse of reform in Lebanon, coming to the fore most recently in the mass protests of October 2019. Yet, these most recent movements build on years of activism and contestation, seeking to reclaim rights to access and engage with public spaces in the face of encroachments, mainly by the private sector. Urban spaces, including the country’s two biggest cities – Beirut and Tripoli – have been largely privatised and the preserve of an elite few, and post-war development has been marred with criticism of corruption and exclusivity. This article explores the history of public spaces in Beirut and Tripoli and the successive civic movements, which have sought to realise rights to public space. The article argues that reclaiming public space is central to reform and re-building relationships across divides after years of conflict. First, the article describes the evolution of Lebanon’s two main urban centres. Second, it moves to discuss the role of the consociational system in the partition and regulation of public space. Then it describes the various civic movements related to public space and examines the opportunities created by the October 2019 movement. Penultimately it interrogates the limits imposed by COVID-19 and recent crises. Lastly, it explores how placemaking and public space can contribute to peacebuilding and concludes that public spaces are essential to citizen relationships and inclusive participation in public life and affairs.

scholarly journals Creating public space through urban analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 04012
Author(s):  
Liliia Talipova ◽  
Arseniy Lyubomirskiy ◽  
Daria Povarenko ◽  
Alexander Scherbakov
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Visual Code ◽  
Adjacent Territory ◽  
Urban Analysis ◽  
The Right

The article researches purpose is to create a project of improvement of the right side of Kushelevskaya road through urban analysis. The transformation of the studied area will can lead to the improvement of the visual environment, creation of public spaces, landscaping of the adjacent territory, creation of visual code and new points of development and growth of the district. The study analyzes the physical and social environment, considers social scenarios. A SWOT analysis of the study area and a development map was carried out.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Psychosocial Impact of Indoor Public Spaces in Complex Healthcare Settings

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Lacanna ◽  
Cor Wagenaar ◽  
Tom Avermaete ◽  
Viren Swami
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Space Environment ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
A Value ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Objective: This article describes an approach to a metrics-based evaluation of public space in hospitals using cross-disciplinary qualitative and quantitative analyses. The method, Indoor Public Space Measurement (IPSM), is well suited to researchers and designers who intend to evaluate user-centered spatial solutions in hospitals and similar facilities. Background: Healthcare is transiting toward a value-based policy at all levels. Choosing the right set of qualitative and quantitative analyses to support value-based design solutions is not always an easy journey for healthcare design consultants. This article seeks to pull together the key analyses to evaluate the impact of the hospital indoor public space on the psychosocial well-being of the hospital users. Method: A step-by step guide to performing key analyses to evaluate the impact of hospital indoor public space environment on the users’ psychosocial well-being is provided. A case study from the authors’ research is utilized to illustrate the application of the method. Results: Interpolating the results of all the analyses, the reader can identify where in the layout most of interactions among users occur, identify their typology and evaluate the contribution to the general psychosocial well-being, and know which group of users is more exposed to a specific typology of interaction. Conclusions: The IPSM method can help design consultants to measure the impact of the built environment of hospital public space on its occupants’ psychosocial well-being: factual knowledge about the users’ behavioral response with respect to wayfinding and social interaction. The application of the method is not limited to healthcare settings only.

scholarly journals Perceived impact of meteorological conditions on the use of public space in winter settlements

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-642
Author(s):  
Agneta Larsson ◽  
David Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Ambient Conditions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis study aimed to assess the impact of meteorological conditions on the use of public space in Scandinavia and Canada. Between September 21 and December 18, 2017, a cross-sectional online survey ‘EAMQ-Climate: space’ was distributed via web-based platforms. Survey responses were received from 361 residents (258 people from Scandinavia and 103 from Canada). The relative impact of the meteorological determinants on the use of public space was calculated, and a factor analysis was performed. Disparities between Canada and Scandinavia as well as between the climate zones represented were analysed using ANOVA. Overall results showed that the most significant meteorological enablers for the use of outdoor public spaces in winter were solar gain, snowfall and snow-covered surfaces. The main barriers were slush-covered and icy surfaces, rainfall and darkness. Wind and cold were conditions with less influence. The impact of rain and ice, however, differed between climatic zones. It was also established that, when addressing the meteorological impact on avoiding the use of public spaces in winter, it is vital to discriminate between conditions related to a) the ground surface and b) ambient conditions, as well as the particular significance of c) snow and sun, and d) darkness. For the design of public space in winter cities, we conclude that designers need to focus on a wider range of weather conditions than sun, wind and cold, and include snow, rainfall, slushy and icy ground and poor visibility. The study suggests that winter public space has a higher climatic design requirement to be successful than streets and pathways that are mainly used for soft mobility.

scholarly journals Public Space and the Efficiency of the New Residential Zones in Small Slovak Towns and Villages

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-559
Author(s):  
Alžbeta Sopirová ◽  
Lucia Štefancová ◽  
Silvia Bašová ◽  
Karol Görner
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
New Public ◽  
New Development ◽  
Eleven Case

Abstract The paper deals with the issue of creation of new public spaces in emerging residential areas in rural settlements and small towns. The developers of the new residential zones currently pursue their private interests and the specific rural structure is complemented by isolated residential complexes without relation to the centre of the settlement and structure of the main public spaces. The hypothesis that the efficient residential structure can be achieved even at a higher percentage of active and vibrant public spaces is verified at eleven case studies in three selected settlements (Bernolákovo, Brezno, Chorvátsky Grob – Čierna Voda). The examined proposals (case studies) showed that despite the wide application of social and recreational public spaces and the large percentage of green area per capita, the site coverage coefficient was comparable and the population density was even higher than the current standards of development. In conclusion, it is possible to say, that the creation of public spaces in a residential zone does not adversely affect the efficiency of the new development. On the contrary, it brings a lot of benefits.

scholarly journals Features of urban public spaces in the context of globalization

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-246
Author(s):  
K. L. Khomyakova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Impact

The article deals with characteristics of urban public spaces, their role in the global transformation of the social relations system is determined. The ambiguity of assessing the impact of globalization on modern cities is due to the theoretical and methodological problems of modern sociological urbanism. There is no single approach among scientists to defining the concept of urban public space, which determines the relevance of the study of its interpretation and definition of essential properties. Public spaces are considered as a connecting element between the system and social levels of urban research, which correspond to the levels of integration identified by the modern sociologist E. Giddens. The article analyzes classical and modern approaches to the study of public space, there is reveals the course of evolution of sociological thought in relation to the formation of differentiation of types of spaces within cities. Based on the analysis of the works of modern sociologists and urbanists, such key features of public spaces as openness, socio-political neutrality, and symbolism were identified. Global processes and contradictions lead to an aggravation of the problem of the presence of the category of “Others” within public urban spaces, which are representatives of various segments of the population, with a variety of claims and interests. One of the consequences of the intensive development of digital technologies is a possible situation of “competition for the citizen” between traditional public spaces and online services. Assumptions are made about future transformations of social relations within public spaces as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

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