Public space : The Possibility Of Social Movement

Public spaces have always been considered as a place of exchange since the Greek Agoras and the Roman Forums, where men came together and discussed matters of the state. In fact, the concept of public space comes from our need to be connected to others. It’s a place of encounters, translating how we practice space in relation to others. It ignites the idea that we are part of a collective effort, that we belong to this world… that we exist. A public space is a form of democracy. It is a space of freedom of movement, expression, and most importantly, it is our first contact with a city. In general, in order to discover the behavior of a neighborhood, a district, or a city, we often turn to these spaces. A physical illustration of the individual and the collective vision, these areas have symbolic values. Scale, location, borders, angles, views, proportions, and artifacts play a role in determining the final outcome of these areas. Along with all these variables, one constant remains unchallenged. Public spaces are places of expression. Some more than others -due to a series of proper factors put together- but all public spaces inspire exchange. Even repressing, over-planned and monitored squares encourage people to revolt against them, or against what they actually represent, from governments, political regimes, to economic systems.Infact the public square should not be represented as the city’s gated property or as a walled garden. It should be a space that provides citizens with opportunities to engage in political and social debates. As governments around the world understand the threat that the public space itself generates, they often exercise pressure, barricade, and control these areas, in order to silence these movements. For designing and analyzing the public squares for a social movement needs to take into account some factors such as how people use this space, what is the role of this space in the collective memory, and how politically important is the public square in comparison to the government s attempt to control the public space. This control can be applied in different ways, for example, the presence of military services or putting some obstacles like barbed wire or sometimes demolishing buildings near to that space to take the identity changing the center of power by moving important building near but architect or urban designer have the power stand against some of those aspects. Therefore, it could be said that the architecture of public space has played an influential role on the success of the revolutions or social movements, which occur in that space. Thus, the following question to consider is how architectures of public squares can redesign in the way to invite more people and protect them? (l'abstract prosegue nel riquadro sottostante dedicato all'Abstract parte inglese)