Post-pandemic scenarios and design strategies for public spaces transformation

Almost two years later of a pandemic condition, one thing is sure: the pandemic will change permanently the world and its systems. Nowadays, the reflection on public space is crucial within a more sustainable and inclusive development at urban scale, amplified also by the ongoing experience of the pandemic that still presents. Public space is a real opportunity to test new urban and social models, thus becoming a principal catalyst for positive changes in the entire urban context. It is therefore necessary to re-establish a relationship between the public space and its inhabitants, providing a system of proximity by highlighting the human and non-human dimensions and consequently connecting services, relationships, and opportunities. Acting in public space is the first step in the development of innovative urban transformations, generated by collaborative phenomena working in the collective interest. The use of participatory practices within the design processes favors the reconnection between people and territory, generating a shared sense of belonging that leads to taking care of one's own places. The reversibility of the intervention and its adaptability are key characteristics that allow experimenting with new ways of experiencing public spaces and responding to unforeseen experiences, thus accommodating the inevitable changes in society. This scientific contribution aims to set forward distinctive points of view on the planning strategies implemented in the pandemic and post-pandemic period to achieve intelligent transformations on a small and large urban scale with an impact from short to long-term; hence shaping the future cities.

Download Full-text

O(S) ESPAÇO(S) PÚBLICO(S) NUMA CIDADE DESIGUAL E SEGREGADA

Caderno CRH ◽

10.9771/ccrh.v34i0.27018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 021010

Author(s):

Rafael De Aguiar Arantes

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Urban Life ◽

Mots Clés ◽

The Public ◽

Urban Transformations ◽

Espace Public ◽

The City ◽

Article Analyse

Este artigo analisa os usos do(s) espaço(s) público(s) na vida urbana contemporânea, discutindo sua relevância e sua capacidade de expressar diversidade e engendrar intersubjetividades. Para isso, busca-se discutir a validade das teses que indicam a existência de um processo de diluição/restrição dos espaços públicos, analisando sua dinâmica na cidade do Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, e considerando as transformações urbanas recentes, através de revisão da literatura, coleta de dados secundários e realização de entrevistas com diversos citadinos. O artigo conclui que as transformações contemporâneas vêm favorecendo o avanço de formas de privatização e autossegregação, restringindo os usos dos espaços públicos. Porém, não se pode falar da morte desses espaços em Salvador, uma vez que seus usos sobrevivem, ainda que sejam premidos por seu caráter heterogêneo, desigual, segregado e fragmentado, situação ensejada por processos de privatização e mercantilização, violência e medo, além de diferentes formas de disputas, distinções e competições.THE PUBLIC SPACE(S) IN AN UNEQUAL AND SEGREGATED CITY This article analyzes the uses of the public spaces in the contemporary urban life, discussing their relevance and ability to express diversity and produce intersubjectivities. For that, it discusses the validity of the thesis indicating the existence of a dilution/restriction process of public spaces. Through literary review, secondary data collection, and interviews with city residents, this work sought to analyze the dynamics of public spaces in Salvador before the recent urban transformations in the city. The findings indicate that the contemporary ransformations favored privatization and selfsegregation, restricting the use of public spaces. However, one cannot speak of the “death” of public spaces in Salvador, for their uses survives – although pressed by several factors such as their heterogeneity and inequality, their segregated and fragmented character, and by privatization and commodification processes, violence and fear, forms of disputes, distinctions and competitions.Keywords: Public space. Urban Sociability. Privatization. Segregation. Salvador.LE(S) SPACE(S) PUBLIC(S) DANS UNE VILLE INÉGALE ET SÉGRÉGÉE Cet article analyse l’utilisation des espaces publics dans la vie urbaine contemporaine, en discutant sa pertinence actuelle et sa capacité d’exprimer la diversité et créer d’intersubjectivités. Cela implique discuter la validité des thèses qui indiquent l’existence d’un processus de dilution/restriction des espaces publics, en analysant sa dynamique dans la ville de Salvador, et en considérant les récentes transformations urbaines, par l’examen de la littérature, la collecte des données secondaires et des entretiens avec plusieurs habitants. On conclut que les transformations contemporaines ont favorisé l’avancée des formes de privatisation et d’auto-ségrégation, restreignant les usages des espaces publics. Cependant, ces espaces publics à Salvador ne sont pas mort ; leurs usages survivent, même s’ils sont pressé par leur caractère hétérogène, inégal, ségrégé et fragmenté, situation causée par les processus de privatisation et de marchandisation, la violence et la peur, en plus de différentes formes de disputes, distinctions et compétitions.Mots-clés: Espace public. Sociabilité urbaine. Privatisation. Ségrégation. Salvador.

Download Full-text

‘Party in the street’: The partisan politics of space

Environment and Planning C Politics and Space ◽

10.1177/23996544211033875 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 239965442110338

Author(s):

David Jenkins ◽

Lipin Ram

Keyword(s):

Public Sphere ◽

Public Space ◽

State Power ◽

Public Spaces ◽

The State ◽

Political Community ◽

Democratic Legitimacy ◽

Partisan Politics ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere

Public space is often understood as an important ‘node’ of the public sphere. Typically, theorists of public space argue that it is through the trust, civility and openness to others which citizens cultivate within a democracy’s public spaces, that they learn how to relate to one another as fellow members of a shared polity. However, such theorizing fails to articulate how these democratic comportments learned within public spaces relate to the public sphere’s purported role in holding state power to account. In this paper, we examine the ways in which what we call ‘partisan interventions’ into public space can correct for this gap. Using the example of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), we argue that the ways in which CPIM partisans actively cultivate sites of historical regional importance – such as in the village of Kayyur – should be understood as an aspect of the party’s more general concern to present itself to citizens as an agent both capable and worthy of wielding state power. Drawing on histories of supreme partisan contribution and sacrifice, the party influences the ideational background – in competition with other parties – against which it stakes its claims to democratic legitimacy. In contrast to those theorizations of public space that celebrate its separateness from the institutions of formal democratic politics and the state more broadly, the CPIM’s partisan interventions demonstrate how parties’ locations at the intersections of the state and civil society can connect the public sphere to its task of holding state power to account, thereby bringing the explicitly political questions of democratic legitimacy into the everyday spaces of a political community.

Download Full-text

Activating Data through Eco-Didactic Design in the Public Realm: Enabling Sustainable Development in Cities

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084577 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4577

Author(s):

Carmela Cucuzzella ◽

Morteza Hazbei ◽

Sherif Goubran

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Public Space ◽

Knowledge Exchange ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Public Realm ◽

Design Data ◽

Art And Design ◽

The Public ◽

Community Based Design ◽

The City

This paper explores how design in the public realm can integrate city data to help disseminate the information embedded within it and provide urban opportunities for knowledge exchange. The hypothesis is that such art and design practices in public spaces, as places of knowledge exchange, may enable more sustainable communities and cities through the visualization of data. To achieve this, we developed a methodology to compare various design approaches for integrating three main elements in public-space design projects: city data, specific issues of sustainability, and varying methods for activating the data. To test this methodology, we applied it to a pedogeological project where students were required to render city data visible. We analyze the proposals presented by the young designers to understand their approaches to design, data, and education. We study how they “educate” and “dialogue” with the community about sustainable issues. Specifically, the research attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How can we use data in the design of public spaces as a means for sustainability knowledge exchange in the city? (2) How can community-based design contribute to innovative data collection and dissemination for advancing sustainability in the city? (3) What are the overlaps between the projects’ intended impacts and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Our findings suggest that there is a need for such creative practices, as they make information available to the community, using unconventional methods. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand the short- and long-term outcomes of these works in the public realm.

Download Full-text

Reconceptualizing the Public Spaces of New Urban Areas in Hanoi: The End or the New of Public-Making?

International Journal of Sustainable Construction Engineering Technology ◽

10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.026 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Minh-Tung Tran ◽

◽

Tien-Hau Phan ◽

Ngoc-Huyen Chu ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Public Spaces ◽

The Public ◽

Doi Moi ◽

The World ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

The City ◽

Neighborhood Level

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered na-ture of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi.

Download Full-text

Using Virtual Soundwalk Approach for Assessing Sound Art Soundscape Interventions in Public Spaces

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10062102 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 2102

Author(s):

Tin Oberman ◽

Kristian Jambrošić ◽

Marko Horvat ◽

Bojana Bojanić Obad Šćitaroci

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Cultural Factors ◽

Sound Art ◽

Subjective Responses ◽

The Public ◽

First Order ◽

Sound Source Identification ◽

Acoustic Environments ◽

Positive Effect

This paper discusses the soundscape assessment approaches to soundscape interventions with musical features introduced to public spaces as permanent sound art, with a focus on the ISO 12913 series, Method A for data collection applied in a laboratory study. Three soundscape interventions in three cities are investigated. The virtual soundwalk is used to combine the benefits of the on-site and laboratory settings. Two measurement points per location were recorded—one at a position where the intervention was clearly perceptible, the other further away to serve as a baseline condition. The participants (N = 44) were exposed to acoustic environments (N = 6) recorded using the first-order Ambisonics microphone on-site and then reproduced via the second-order Ambisonics system in laboratory. A series of rank-based Kruskal–Wallis tests were performed on the results of the subjective responses. Results revealed a statistically significant positive effect on soundscape at two locations, and limitations related to sound source identification due to cultural factors and geometrical configuration of the public space at one location.

Download Full-text

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

The Journal of Public Space ◽

10.32891/jps.v4i2.1209 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 179-198 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

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.

Download Full-text

Re Thinking the Public Toilet of Dhaka City: An Adaptable Prototype Design Solution to Improve the Existing Situation

CREATIVE SPACE ◽

10.15415/cs.2021.91001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Syeda Faeza Hasan ◽

Farjana Rahman

Keyword(s):

Cost Effective ◽

Design Solution ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Public Infrastructure ◽

Urban Context ◽

Human Waste ◽

The Public ◽

Hygiene Education ◽

The City ◽

Public Toilets

Dhaka is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world with a population of 21 million. With the constantly rising inhabitants, this urbanizing hub officially only has 122 public toilets, and in reality, most of them are not functional (Sanyal, November 05, 2016). Different studies also suggested that current situations of the public toilets in the city are unusable and unhygienic. Apart from a few good ones, most toilets have filthy floors, inadequate lighting and ventilation, and unbearable odor of human waste. Although unhygienic open defecation by men is a common scene in the city, for the woman it is not an option. While the city plans to construct a few, there still will be a huge need for public toilets to meet the demand of the vast population. It is critical to realize the challenges existing and evolving from the forbidding public hygiene situation and the lack of proper public infrastructure. Understanding the user group is crucial as modern and costly toilets end up being rejected than being used. Thus the paper tries to address the problems and suggests design strategies to achieve a feasible design solution for a sustainable public toilet that supports and empowers communal hygiene. The contribution of this paper is not only to promote a design solution but how this infrastructure can integrate with the surrounding urban context. A modular prototype is proposed which is adaptable, feasible, cost-effective, easy to erect, and can be plugged into any corner of the city. Rethinking public toilets as an adaptable prototype is not only about providing proper sanitation but also encouraging people about hygiene education, awareness, and innovation. The design is conceptualized as a prefabricated self-sustainable modular unit that can be altered, increased, or decreased as per the necessity of the surrounding area.

Download Full-text

NYC POPS: Exploring Human Agency of the Public Sphere

10.26686/wgtn.17072663.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Anna Constable

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Public Space ◽

Social Life ◽

Social Space ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Test Case ◽

Late 20Th Century ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

Privately Owned

This thesis aims to investigate, through design, spatial agency within the realm of New York City’s Privately Owned Public Spaces. The notion of agency in architecture is directly linked to social and political power. Starting in 1961, New York’s city planners introduced an incentive zoning scheme (POPS) which encouraged private builders to include public spaces in their developments. Many are in active public use, but others are hard to find, under surveillance, or essentially inaccessible. Within the existing POPS sites, tension is current between the ideals of public space - completely open, accessible - and the limitations imposed by those who create and control it. Designed to be singular, contained, and mono-functional, POPS do not yet allow for newer ideas of public space as multi-functional, not contained/bounded but extending and overlapping outward. As public-private partnerships become the model for catalyzing urban (re)development in the late 20th century, bonus space is an increasingly common land use type in major cities across the world. The quality and nature of bonus spaces created in exchange for floor area bonuses varies greatly. In many cases, tensions in privately owned space produce a severely constricted definition of the public and public life. Incentive zoning programmes continue to serve as a model for numerous urban zoning regulations, so changing ideas of public space and its design need to be tested in such spaces. These urban plazas offer a test case through which to examine agency, exploring how social space is also political space, charged with the dynamics of power/ empowerment, interaction/ isolation, control/ freedom. This thesis looks at one such site, the connecting plaza sites along Sixth Avenue between West 47th St and West 51st St. This is an extreme example of concentrated POPS sites in New York City. Here one’s perception and occupation of space is profoundly affected by the underlying design of that space which reflects its private ownership. Privately Owned Public Space can be designed that is capable of/ challenging the notion of the public in public space, and modifying the structure of the city and its social life.

Download Full-text

Recovery of residual public spaces to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of San Borja, Lima

Journal of Physics Conference Series ◽

10.1088/1742-6596/2089/1/012051 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2089 (1) ◽

pp. 012051

Author(s):

O Facho ◽

T Cama ◽

D Esenarro ◽

J Livia ◽

C Cuetoand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Public Space ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Public Places ◽

The Public ◽

Phase Study

Abstract The present research aims to propose a model for the recovery of residual public spaces to improve the quality of life of the district of San Borja’s inhabitants. San Borja is in the process of densification and requires a more significant number of public spaces that offer, in addition to vegetation, public places for active and passive recreation, such as spaces for sports and games, walking pets, and relaxation. These needs have increased due to the confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it was noted that the median strip, or central reservation of the avenue, can be recovered for people to use. Therefore, a four-phase study was carried out that included reviewing the literature and observing two cases. In conclusion, a model was proposed to recover the public space of the median strips of San Borja Norte Avenue and San Borja Sur Avenue to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of San Borja, which can be replicated in other avenues with residual spaces with similar characteristics.

Download Full-text

Sociotope mapping: perceptions of public space at Ryerson University

10.32920/ryerson.14652192.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Olivia Afonso Magalhaes

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Landscape Architecture ◽

Online Survey ◽

School Administration ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Public Consultation ◽

Public Realm ◽

University Campus ◽

The Public ◽

Mapping Tool

Sociotope mapping is a tool that has been used to identify values in public spaces, as defined by the public. By developing an original sociotope map using the sociotope map methodology, utilizing the technique created in Stockhom, Sweden, this research attempts to understand the values of public space within and around Ryerson University, while providing a critique on the utility of the tool in this context. The information collected from an online survey will be analyzed and visually displayed on a sociotope map. This may be utilized by the school administration, municipal planners, urban designers or landscape architecture professionals to understand what concerns may be provoked by the development of certain spaces and the resources valued by the public in the public realm. This project explores how different public spaces within the Ryerson University Campus are utilized and how useful is the sociotope mapping tool in inferring these values. keywords: planning; sociotope; parks planning; perceptions of space; engagement; public consultation.

Download Full-text