What makes a space public?

What makes a space public? Is it a defined space such as a park or picnic area? Is it defined as a place where people congregate or simply where individuals can move through. Is it a place where anyone can access for free? Would the “front yard” of a home qualify as a public space? Would a sidewalk be considered a public space even if they are simply meant for “walking”?

What makes these so called “public spaces” successful??

Since I have been here in Italy I have noticed that the Italians views on what is public and what is private is very different that America’s view.  Italians have no problem argueing in the street, leaving their laundry to dry where anyone who walks by can see, or even sitting inside in their underwear with the door open for anyone passing by on the street to see.

It is interesting how these deffinitions blur between cultures. There is no right or wrong. So a public space could be extremely successful in Italy while being a complete and utter failure in America.

A software for this type of analysis would have to take these cultural tendencies into account. A software that could somehow take the analysis of a certain culture within a public space and then take it and throw it back into a newly designed space to see how individuals would react would be something (in my opinion) that would be very useful to architects or urban planners. Taking it to the next step would be how to make the software analyze a space with many cultural tendencies thrown into the mix. A large urban space in a large city would have many, many different cultures that could potentially use the space.

Any thoughts or comments on the subject are greatly appreciated!

~ by publicspaceanalysis on October 7, 2008.