Attention!, your movement makes the city

With Information Technology such as smart phones we use public urban space differently. For example prior to cell phones people would meet in a public space by agreeing on a specific meeting location and time. Using cell phones people meet more spontaneous. Cell phones also allow people to be engaged in a very private phone conversation in the middle of a public space. In spite of information technology creating new uses for public space urban planners are still relying on old paradigms in designing and constructing it. A workshop was formulated around the question: How can we design urban spaces for a digital culture? The achieved outcome of the workshop was the design and realization of a public space that addresses this challenge. To do that students were asked to come up with new functions for public spaces, test materials, help seeking for funding and creating partnerships with the city, the industry and nonprofit organizations. During the duration of a one-semester timeframe the studio was facing a series of challenges dealing with the design, fabrication and realization of an urban space. This paper will describe the challenges of designing urban spaces for a digital culture, the structure of the workshop, the interventions made during the process and the final project, an urban landscape titled “Urban Blanket” that was build in Midtown Atlanta.

Preserving damaged memorial buildings are vital to maintain a cultural identity to be reused and inherited by future generations. Buildings established in the past will overlook that they will be aging and weathering. Wooden construction in Malay traditional houses built more than 100 years ago faces durability issues. Environmental conditions equally make its structure unusable. In addition, its surrounding environment has changed, and the demands for new functions for improving the structure’s condition have become challenges in retrofitting the traditional roles into the current contemporary activities needs. The traditional Malay house in Kampung Bangka, Pontianak, which experienced a transfer of ownership from the original owner to the city government, altered its function from a residential house to a cultural house. Buildings having experienced weathering requires a well-planned reconstruction and re-functioning efforts from the city government. The reconstruction stages and house’s identification process of previous roles are required to accommodate new activities fit for culture and public space. Identification and analysis process carried out to resolve the damaged condition of structural elements of the building to maintain its authenticity as memorials building for the community. Identification is also required to anticipate the new function of the building by providing a new structure or reinforcement to govern the future activities during the operation period of the building. Cultural and structural analysis is carried out to improve the function of the building and the surrounding area into a cultural space that enhances its image as a public space.

With the continuous acceleration of urbanization, the protection and inheritance of urban cultural space are facing huge challenges. Cultural heritage is not only the witness of history, but also the core of urban identity and spirit. However, with the modernization and social changes, the damage and loss of traditional cultural space are becoming increasingly serious, and it is urgent to adopt new technical means to achieve effective protection and inheritance. Digital modeling technology, as a new tool, has gradually shown important value in the field of cultural heritage protection. Based on geographic information system and 3D laser scanning technology, this paper explores the digital modeling method of urban cultural space, and combined with case analysis, puts forward the integration path of digital modeling and cultural heritage protection. Through the analysis of digital modeling data of a famous historical and cultural city, this paper shows the evolution process of cultural space in different historical periods. Through comparative analysis, it is found that the cultural space of this city has experienced large-scale demolition and reconstruction in the past 50 years, and about 35% of historical buildings and public spaces are at risk of disappearing. By using digital modeling technology, the three-dimensional data of existing cultural heritage can be accurately recorded, and the historical scenes can be restored by virtual reality technology, providing scientific basis for cultural heritage protection. Combined with geospatial analysis, this paper puts forward a cultural heritage protection strategy based on spatial analysis. Through spatial data mining of digital model of urban cultural space, high-risk areas are identified and scientific protection measures are provided for decision makers. The results show that digital modeling can not only improve the accuracy of cultural heritage protection but also provide important support for urban planning and sustainable development of cultural space.

While mainstream industry and government focus on individual, home and business ownership and use of new ICTs, there is a quiet revolution going on as computers, and all their applications from games to the Internet, move into public spaces. There are commercial kiosk systems in the streets and malls, and many government projects to empower communities and stimulate the local economy, but perhaps the most important, overlooked and oft-derided development is the cybercafe. The cybercafe is a cafe or shop open to the public, where a computer can be hired for periods of a half hour to access the Internet, write a CV or play a game. With the explosion in the use and profile of the Internet and personal use of new information and communications technology—‘multimedia’—cybercafes have become part of contemporary culture, established among the public places of modern cities, towns and villages around the world. In December 1999 an on-line cybercafe guide listed 4,397 cafes around the world.1 There is very little research on what these cybercafes are used for, who uses them and why.2 This study, conducted in 1998 (Stewart, 1998), addressed the use and users of three cybercafes in the same city, the reasons and manner they were set up and developed, and the role cybercafes play in the general development of use and knowledge about multimedia. What emerged was that cybercafes are not only sites for technical access and consumption and use of multimedia content and services, but also public, physical, community and cultural spaces. In this context I challenge the view that computers either undermine the community, or are only relevant to the formation and activities of ‘virtual’ communities.

* Preface * Acknowledgments * Chapter 1. Culture, Public Space, and Cities * Chapter 2. The and Public Space in Spain * Chapter 3. Modernity and Public Space in Crisis: Contemporary Madrid * Chapter 4. City of Architects: Public Space and the Resurgence of Barcelona * Chapter 5. Spain Meets Mesoamerica: The and Public Space in Mexico * Chapter 6. Revitalizing Historic Centers in Urban Mexico: Politics and Public Space * Chapter 7. The Globalization of Urban Form: Transcultural Public Spaces along the Mexico-United States International Border * Chapter 8. Return to the Center? Politics, Latino Culture, and Public Space * Notes * References

The article examines the structure of public space. Public space is characterized from the point of view of scale and from the point of view of the spheres of communicative ties. Interactions in terms of scale take place in the public space of the world, continental, national, regional, local, in terms of the spheres of reflection of communicative relations - in the urban, extraurban, Internet environment. Public space is considered to be a vast system, not limited to the urban environment, which includes in terms of spheres of expression such segments as political, cultural, economic, ethnic space. Political space is at the top of this system. The political actors coordinate people’s interactions in the economic, cultural and ethnic space. At the same time, interactions in the economic, cultural, ethnic space can influence events and processes in the political environment. An element of cultural space is the media. Mass media improves interactive communication with the audience, but not all messages disseminated by journalists become part of the public space, unless readers, viewers, listeners participate in the discussion of topical topics. Both constructive discussions reflecting different viewpoints and simulated discussions that do not represent the plurality of opinions of free citizens are common in public spaces.

This paper examines the debate over the place of “companion animal” public space in China’s cities. With the COVID-19 outbreak, this debate has entered a new phase, where the social response to the outbreak may have fundamentally changed the public’s use and perception of “companion animal” public and pseudo-public space. This paper combines quantitative and qualitative analysis of posts and comments on two of China’s largest social media platforms with a big data approach, based on a case study in Beijing, China. There were statistically significant differences in the perception and use of “companion animal” public spaces and pseudo-public spaces before and after the pandemic. We attribute the impact of the pandemic on “companion animal” spaces to three pathways: changes in opportunity, changes in ability, and changes in motivation. We found that the pandemic led to an increase in the amount of time available to some people but a decrease in the amount of “companion animal” public space available due to the pandemic closure. In addition, the use of “companion animal” public spaces in pseudo-public spaces declined, while those located within the open urban green space on the city’s outskirts stood out after the outbreak. With the normalisation of the pandemic, there will be new challenges for the development and operation of companion-animal-related public spaces in cities, which will be the next focus of research. In addition, governments and social media should work together to promote and support sustainable animal ethical practices to better respond to the crisis. These findings will help complement the urban services system and guide future planning, design, and evaluation of related spaces.

Padang City as a big city with a population approaching one million people has to address the issue of increased activities of the population and increased need for land and space for those activities. One of the effects of population growth and the development of activities in Padang is the decreasing number of open spaces for the outdoor public activities, both the natural and artificial public. However, Padang City has several open spaces that are built and managed by the government including 40 units of open spaces in the form of plansum parks, playgrounds, and sports parks, with a total area of 10.88 hectares. Despite their status as public open spaces, not all of them can be used and enjoyed by the public since most of them are passive parks, in which they are made only as a garden without any indulgences. This study was performed to assess the quality of public spaces in the central business of Padang City, namely Imam Bonjol Park (Taman Imam Bonjol). The methods of this study were done through several stages, which were to identify the typology of function space based on [1] Carmona (2008) and to assess the space utilization index based on the approach of Public Space Index according to Mehta [2] (2007). The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of space which is a public space in Padang City. The space quality was measured based on the variables in Good Public Space Index, the intensity of use, the intensity of social activity, the duration of activity, the variations in usage, and the diversity of use. The rate of the index of public space quality at Taman Imam Bonjol was determined by assessing 5 (five) variables of space quality. Based on the results of the analysis, public space utilization index was equal to 0.696. This result could be used to determine the quality of public space, in this case was Imam Bonjol Park was in Medium category. The parameters indicated several results including the lack of diversity in users’ activity time, less formation of social interaction between users, and the relatively short average of visitors’ duration in exploiting public space.

In the crowded cities of the present age, public spaces can provide a quiet area away from the hustle and bustle of the city that citizens can interact with by incorporating utility features and meeting human needs and Relax there. Small urban spaces are among the most important and effective urban spaces to achieve this goal. Because these spaces due to their small size and lower costs (compared to larger spaces) for construction can be created in large numbers and distributed throughout the city. In this way, citizens will be able to reach a public urban space on foot in a short time. If these spaces are well designed, they can encourage people to stay in and interact with each other. It is not difficult to identify and experience high-quality successful places, but identifying the reasons for their success is difficult and even more difficult, understanding if similar spaces in other places can be considered successful. This question is important because public space with deep social content is considered a cultural product. Public space is the product of the historical and socio-cultural forces of society. Therefore, one of the most important issues that should be considered in the study of public spaces and the reasons for their success is the cultural context. In Iranian cities that have been influenced by the values and principles of Islam,recognizing Islamic principles and their role in shaping public spaces can lead us to desirable results. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual model of successful small urban spaces with an emphasis on cultural issues, especially in Iranian-Islamic cities. In this regard, the effective criteria for the success of urban spaces in general and small urban spaces in particular in the two categories of Western countries and Iranian Islamic cities were examined and then, taking into account the criteria derived from cultural theorists, the conceptual model of research with 38 subcriteria is provided.

Urban cartography enables us to trace the historical and spatial evolution of human settlements, but it also furnishes us with the opportunity to obtain and analyse urban data from the perspective of the present day. Urban plans drafted for the reform and expansion of a city can provide us with valuable urban information about the planned use of new public space. In Western Europe, the historical cartography of Barcelona (Spain) maps the city’s mid-nineteenth century urban expansion project designed to fulfil egalitarian, social and hygienist goals. Here, using geographic information system tools, we digitize Barcelona’s cartography so as to create an urban dataset based on the city’s urban plans – the Cerdà Plans (1859 and 1863) – and to estimate its public space typology. Social centres, hospitals, green spaces, residential areas and communication infrastructures are identified and metrised, and urban public open spaces are analysed using various urban indicators. The urban data thus obtained represent a notable advance on attempts to quantify Cerdà’s original project. The importance attached to public space (>75%) and to both communication infrastructure and urban public open spaces is indicative of the desire to create a new city and to break with the values of old Barcelona. In short, the data obtained serve to undertake a detailed comparison with the present-day reality of Barcelona.

This paper presents a recent design activism initiative named Open Your Space in Chinese urban context. The project aims to help the urban community acquire a better sense of sustainability, comfortability, and accessibility to public space, where citizens, place managers and local government could connect together through socially engaged and participatory process. The paper advocates the design initiative influence of public space in culture, social context and social system, analyses how to use public space design intervention strategies to modeling resilient community mechanism. By synthesizing ideas of resilience, the paper uses the community-led placemaking approach in order to create the third place and a new paradigm of spatial and social resilience.

This study examines the importance of inclusive design and accessibility of urban public spaces for people with disabilities (PWDs) in areas around Kuala Lumpur. The main focus is to create an inclusive community, in accordance with the concept of ‘City for All’, regardless of social, cultural, economic, or religious status. This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) where target 11.7.1., is that urban public open spaces are for the use of all people, regardless of gender, age, and ability. This has identified two main problems, namely, the negative perceptions of accessibility and the design of urban public spaces that does not often meet the needs for the mobility of PwDs and senior citizens. The aim is to establish criterias for universal design in public spaces that are characterized by inclusivity and are easily accessible to all people of the society. The methodology used includes data collection through interviews and direct observation in selected case studies. This process produces not only theoretical basis but also has practical applications in implementing inclusive public spaces in dense urban areas. The result highlights the urgent need for improvements in inclusive planning and the provision of more accessible facilities for all diverse ability. Therefore, improving existing infrastructure to ensure that all individuals can participate inclusively in social life and public space recreation can be realized in major urban public areas in Malaysia.

In this paper, I ask how migrant insertion into the local economy, in particular in the informal economy, has led to contestation over public space in Santa Cruz. Related to this issue, the paper asks what sorts of collective actions are used to defend rights to the use of urban public space, and what are the key points of contention. In my analysis, I look at theoretical connections between the informal economy and urban space, recent changes in the Santa Cruz local economy ‒including accelerated migration and the burgeoning informal economy‒ and conflicts over uses of public urban space.

The multisensory interaction between auditory, visual, and thermal to the overall comfort in public open space: A study in a tropical climate

The epidemic process experienced on a global scale, together with the health field in which it emerged, directly affected daily life from education to tourism, from production to consumption. This effect has been so great. Even the process of returning to normal starting from the first half of 2020 has been defined as the new normal. The new normal has changed the individual’s daily life space and boundaries and imposed restrictions on the use of public exteriors from residential interiors. The change in the use of the space has also changed the relations, communication style, and interaction with space and those who use the space. Relationships and interactions established in daily life have started to be realized almost through residences due to the limitations on public space. Education, work, entertainment, commerce has been started distance and digital environment. This situation causes to changes in behaviors and the way they socialize. The change in the way people socialize and lifestyle with the epidemic causes transform in the use of public and private spaces. As the dynamics of the city change, these areas need to rethink the designs and develop creative solutions. Spatial studies on the Covid 19 pandemic process are approached from different aspects and it is seen that the studies are multidimensional. In the study, these different views are analyzed and the paper is focused from a different framework. It is aimed to contribute to the epidemic process by developing suggestions for public space approaches and possibilities. The method of the study is determined as the evaluation of physical and virtual public space through examples in accordance with literature researches and discussions. It is important to develop new perspectives on the impact of the epidemic on urban environments and to understand what the long-term impacts could have on the public sphere. And then, it is aimed to conduct research on the socio-spatial impacts to be developed according to the results of Covid 19 measures. Therefore, within the scope of the study, the effects of the epidemic in urban spaces are tried to be understood. It is discussed how the possibilities of new public spaces occurring in the built environment and virtual environment will change the nature and definition of this concept.