We, you, the media, various people in culture keep on discussing about the public space. And we start to feel the impact of those speeches. Perhaps not the best ones if we think about the explosion of jardinières, fences, bins which, most recently, easily turn into a public space agenda for certain town halls.
Beyond the urban or architectural planning, the public space acts is essential to the idea of the city, a natural function for urbanity. Even if we do not use them as it should be, they grow and sometimes develop at the same time with the city, or are the result of events.
What should we include in a public space, a well-designed square, or, more appropriately, the energy focused on a certain moment for either a festival, a protest or simply for being alone amidst a crowd? As you can see, the phrase gets meaning only together with a human presence.
This means it is natural for it to progress as part of the society, to be in a certain type of biologic relationship with this, when it promotes the exchange of ideas, human interaction, when it makes space for actions related to tolerance or creativity. Public space can simultaneously be part of control and segregation, it can bring privileges or mere mercantilism, reaching issues of economic or political strategy, or it could stand for financial racism, the start of a ghetto or a place or aggression.
I was invited to moderate a discussion on this topic in Sinaia, at the Ball of Architects, together with Cristi Puiu (film director), Alec Balasescu (anthropologist), Dumitru Bortun (professor of communication and public relations) and Dan Perjovschi (artist). I can now see the image of an architect possible as a builder of culture and not a simple expert in beautiful items. The topic stays for a bridge between us and the others, as a promise for a society I would call the society of the public space. One willing to be open, civilized and educated, an intelligent consumer, responsible, tolerant, educated yet self-reflexive or critical as well. Perhaps it is all about a group of highflyers which I have in my mind; still, I’d like to see it happen.
