Parks have been significant sources of open space in urban history, ranging from private, even sacred spaces to fully public spaces serving as central points of social interaction and recreation. On any given day, many thousands of people spend several hours outdoors in their local park simply living their lives. In addition to the explicit ‘reasons’ why people visit parks (take children, walk, play, or practice some sport), they are also places for solitude, places to think or talk things out, or places designated for slowing the pace of life. What are the principal and most common reasons people use green and open spaces? Surely having data on their desires would be important input to key city management planning. We interviewed park and plaza visitors in Buenos Aires to find out what attracted them to such spaces. Public green spaces across Latin America have traditionally been favourite meeting places for people from all walks of life and all ages because of their association with air, light and nature, as well as culture and multiculturalism. Today more than ever before, and in common with the rest of the world, these spaces cater to a wide range of needs and provide society with social, environmental and economic benefits. In Buenos Aires, as in many cities around the world, parks and plazas have been designed as sites of aesthetic reflection or for specific social practices following a “top-down” planning approach. While parks are large and contain a multifaceted green infrastructure, plazas are open space framed by buildings on most sides and usually hard surfaced. Both can host a diversity of civic activities and tend to be multipurpose. In Buenos Aires, by the late nineteenth century, green spaces began to be relevant urban areas in social life. Read the full article on The Nature of Cities Authors: Jonathan Craik, London / Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires / Sebastian Miguel, Buenos Aires / Leslie Vorraber, Buenos Aires Recommended by Luisa Bravo

This paper emerged from many months of regular participation in the parkour community in Indianapolis, Indiana. First, this study looks at the art of parkour as a bricolent engagement with architecture. Acts of bricolage, a sort of artistic making-do with objects (including one’s body) in the environment, play with(in) the dominant order to “manipulate the mechanisms of discipline and conform to them only in order to evade them” (de Certeau, 1984:  xiv). Second, this study investigates architecture’s participation in the production and maintenance of what de Certeau calls, “operational logic” (p. xi). That is, how architecture acts as a communicative mode of space; one, which conveys rationalized or acceptable ways of being in space. This critical ethnography, then, takes to task the investigation of how traceurs, the practitioners of parkour, uncover emancipatory potential in city space through bricolent use of both architecture and the body. Vol. 2 No. 1 (2017) Keywords: public spaces system, urban design, management plan, enhancement of cultural heritage, historic urban landscape

On 1-10 September 2023 Museo Spazio Pubblico hosted the first workshop of the Public Space Academy , the first, free educational program on public space promoted by City Space Architecture in partnership with the Ove Arup Foundation and in collaboration with UN-Habitat. The workshop attracted a lot of interest and was attended by: • 8 curious learners from around the world, joining us from Israel, Lithuania, Greece, France, Mongolia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, including 2 early-career scholarship recipients; • 30+ speakers from various professional fields, coming from Italy, Greece, Spain, Belgium, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, United Kingdom, Tunisia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia; • online participation of UN-Habitat from Kenya. The workshop also included: • a 1-day seminar organized in collaboration with Fondazione Innovazione Urbana, in the workspace of Bologna Attiva – Temporanea at DUMBO; • site visit of 3 cities / Bologna, Milan, Venice; • the exhibition of the 2022 edition of the European Prize for Urban Public Space promoted by Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), hosted at Museo Spazio Pubblico; ...and so much more! Read the full report of the workshop

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the complexity of public space providing perspectives and methodologies to understand use and appropriation of public space, with also a reflection on the role of public space in the framework of SDGs. Course Description Public space is a key element for sustainable urban development. Despite its broad and context-specific meaning, public space is the social glue that can contribute to advancing mutual trust, cooperation, and solidarity. However, too often public space is not listed as a primary question in the urban agendas of politicians and local governments, but rather as a collateral component, mostly intended as design activity related to landscape urbanism or infrastructure facilities. Major concerns for cities and built environments are defined through different categories and expertise related to housing, services, infrastructure, environmental issues, and technological solutions that also generate investment and provide funding opportunities. While academic research on public space is well established through cross-disciplinary approaches and investigation, there is a lack of interest or an unprepared expertise in defining a comprehensive urban strategy for local implementation, that is built around humans and their life in the public domain. This mini-course explores the complexity of public space from an action-oriented perspective, by analysing appropriation, interpretations and transformation of space by different users and in regard of media, from a theoretical and practical point of view. It consists of five video lectures, presented by passionate public space professionals working in different fields (urban design, architecture, social sciences and humanities), and is supplemented by suggested readings, case studies and other materials. The course is suitable for enthusiasts from different disciplines with no prior experience or knowledge on public space. Whether you are a current undergraduate in the field of urban studies, a community member passionate about public space, or a postgraduate wanting to get a refresher, or a senior professional working in a related field, we welcome you to enroll in this open-access course.

This publication explores the co-creation of public space in the populated remote places of Europe. The variety of initiatives, actors, and their activities are presented from various parts of the continent – from Austria, Estonia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. All of them have some distinctive characteristics in common – they address the participatory improvements of public spaces in which the residents and the local communities play an important role, while at the same time the actors from the creative sector are fully involved too. Special attention is given to the innovative approaches that manage to put the variety of actors into a greater co-operation to jointly reach the final goal through the improvements of the public spaces – i.e. the stronger communities, the better local life, environments, and ideally improved economic prospects of the remote places. The European best practices can also be explored here. Creative works in small and remote places: European best practices exploration Download PDF (162MB) AppendixDownload PDF (162MB) Read more here. Recommended by Luisa Bravo

This paper serves as an introduction to the December 2018 edition ofThe Journal of Public Space,and a reflection on the new importance of public space in international research, policy and practice.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the New Urban Agenda, the ambitious new international agreement for the normative goals of urban development in the next two decades and beyond.  In that document, public space is treated in no fewer than nine paragraphs – and that new emphasis constitutes a historic reversal of highly influential normative models of prior urban practice.  Herein we examine the seminal 1933 Charter of Athens, and we draw out major differences between the two documents, with particular attention to urban form and public space. We conclude with an assessment of the challenges ahead for implementation, particularly as we face significant “lock in” of the older model. Vol. 3 No. 3 (2018) Keywords: Charter of Athens, New Urban Agenda, public space, co-production, affordance