Políticas de espacio público en ciudades europeas

Abstract

This paper is the result of a comparative research on public space policies in nine European cities (Barcelona, Seville, Lyon, Paris, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Berlin and Rome) during the last decades. The research proposes a general overview on the public space renewal processes in each city and it wonders if the policies carried on have led to the emergence of public space cultures. The organisation of the different agents participating in the public space improvements appear as a key factor for the consolidation, spreading and updating of such cultures. Then, the paper analyses the role that different urban devices (public space designs, urban projects, plans and general strategies) have played in the public spaces policies deployed. Finally, the research shows how the public space policies and cultures studied enhanced an urban approach to public space design. Such an approach enables civic places, where it is possible the experience of the collective social framework. The leadership of local administrations and the rich urban heritage in European cities explain that the different processes, autonomous in each city, have all of them converged towards the emergence of urban and civic cultures for public space.