An exploration of public spaces

The last two days I explored the northeastern half of the strip stretching from Coroa in the northeast to Villa Nova Conceicao, just southwest of Ibirapuera Park. In this exploration I documented the public spaces in the different neighbourhoods, trying to find the different established approaches in dealing with these spaces. In my last blog I tried to state some phenomena that make Sao Paulo’s public spaces and public culture different from what I’ve seen in other cities. While describing phenomena usually end up in generalizations, my intention was not to generalize Sao Paulo’s approach towards this theme but to find some similarities in the public spaces throughout the various neighbourhoods that influence the experience of the public culture of the user.

This exploration confirmed most of my thoughts towards the allocation of the most interesting public spaces. Indeed many are found behind fences or facades, making them well-controlled and well-maintained. But I also found places where it’s not this black and white. Here there is the potential to develop into something more. Something that is not anchored to this specific location and only available from time to time. But something that is on the border of the street, where there often is no alternative for using it for transportation, and the public or semi-public domain. It is these spaces that allow a different usage by different users whilst not restricting it to specific time periods or a specific group of people.

Another important discovery has been that walking through a big part of the strip I got a better understanding of the different neighbourhoods and their approach towards public space as a tool to create an interesting environment where it is nice to remain for a while. These different neighbourhoods all have an own identity, and looking at their public spaces I found some variables that influence the use of these spaces and its flexibility:
- profile of the streets
- programme
- maintenance/security
- location (within logistical and demographic web)
- connections between concentrations of interesting public spaces
- accessibility

All these variables differed highly from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and determine how the public spaces are used right now and their potential in developing into a more flexible/dynamical public culture since most of these spaces right now only allow for on specific type of use. This leads to my approach towards my presentation on this theme. It consists of 2 parts:
- documentation of the actual situation regarding the public spaces and culture throughout the different neighbourhoods
- creating strategies to change the spaces that only allow for a singular use or almost no use at all

Finally I will summarize in what kind of products this will result. The documentation consists of maps where I define the different neighbourhoods and their different approaches/situation regarding the public spaces/culture. These maps will be accompanied by pictures and diagrams that show their design, use and an explanation of this type of use on these specific locations. The strategies will consist of a listing of interventions that could be made in order to redevelop the public spaces and culture that need attention because they are lacking quality at the moment. Step by step I will address these interventions and accompany them with diagrams, referential spaces and text that explain how they can improve these public spaces and their use.