Reshaping the City by the Public Space

The image of the city is, in most cases, the image of its public space.

This course aims to show the value of public space in the renovation project of the city. The public space is the social and functional space par excellence of the city. The streets, squares and parks give structure to buildings, facilities and community facilities of the city. The city project layout incorporates the city public spaces, but when the initial offer is low or in highly dense areas of the urban fabric, a greater allocation of public spaces is required. In other cases, it is necessary to improve or adapt the existing public space to new social and functional needs.

The public space in the reform of the city of Barcelona 1981_2011
The course uses the city of Barcelona and its growth forms as reference. The object of study are the public space projects in the city between 1980 and 2011. It is a set of very significant projects about public space, published and internationally awarded. The recent renown of the city, from both professional and academics points of view, is mainly due to these type of interventions. A comprehensive set of institutional publications includes the projects done in this period of time. This is a set of equity value projects, although 25 more years may still be needed for people to appreciate them enough.

The main objective of the course is that students, analyse, visit, understand these public spaces recently developed in Barcelona.