Variables del espacio público contemporáneo: espacio público y arquitectura

Abstract

Is contemporary public space an extension of the collective rootlessness of the current physical environment? Or otherwise it is a new concentrator/transmitter of the urban interface. The ongoing design experience shows that we are near to outline those new urban condensers –this new soul that merges with the old one- and it also shows how extremely easy it is, on the other hand, to fall in the no man void of the generic space. A repetition of common paradigms added to the repertory of consensual forms and materials. A particularly library of neutral objects. Public space mainly hosts the lively memory of the city. The instant picture of what identifies ourselves –between past and future-, in an exercise of projection, transparency and urban health. It is also a rewriting of social scenarios. Intersection, friction, condensation, persistence, intensity, activities and meanings which determine the complexity of the contemporary city. It is the material support of the city legibility. More and more, a nodal element within the network of neuronal connections which sketch the human space associated to well defined places of reference. Cast or physical result of the pressure exercised over the spaces of intense friction? Beyond its transit nature, we can see how the city of flows appropriates without difficulty the intense voids. Spaces stolen to the compact nature of the modern city.