Week 8 Readings: Public Space as Cosmopolitan: Sociability and Exchange

In response to Avermaete's "Making Things Public"


The privatization of public space hampers true public action in a sense that it literally takes the meaning of "public" out of a "public space." When a space becomes privatized it then turns into an area which may or may not be accessible to the general public. For an example, say a space is inside a parking garage complex, the public won't necessarily access this place unless of course they are parking in said garage. It takes away as previously stated, the sense of "public" in a public space. I found it interesting when Avermaete talked about how the modern technology we have today is turning public space from an architectural and landscape type of ordeal into an engineering and computer type of "space." Today thousands of people gather in this virtual public space and use such things as blogs and popular social networking sites i.e. Facebook and Twitter. So to say that an architect should begin to think about designing a public space with both these ideas in mind, than one might be able to create a working public space in today's age, while still maintaining the original ideas of a public space. One other interesting point made by Avermaete was the ideas around public space and sustainability and how the two can coincide and work effectively in modern public space design.

In response to "Everyday Urbanism"


Essentially what the authors of this reading define "public"as something they call a public sphere. In which everyone in the general public has the right to be there, what they call a "space of democracy." I found the connection to the ancient Greeks and their public space. WHile women and other people not technically considered a citizen weren't treated equally in most aspects of life, the public space was open to them. This developed into our knowledge of what the term public space is supposed to mean, and that is a place that is open to everyone in the public realm, from rich to poor and in todays context of every age, race, and nationality.