Sensuous geography : the role of sensuous experience and their contemporary implications in public squares, a Lefebvrian approach

This paper explores the sensuous relationship amongst people and the physical elements located in public squares. The research focuses on the study of sensuous geography and its social implications in contemporary city context. Case studies were drawn from various Western countries. A Lefebvrian approach was utilized to analyse the research findings. The study has generated a preliminary sensuous geography checklist for public squares that can predict the degree of popularity and experiential qualities of public squares. However, limits existed in the paper as sensory experiences are conditioned by individual, socio-cultural and climatic influences. The study suggests further integrated approach is needed in this field of study. The research findings indicated that better knowledge of sensuous geography is important in the design and planning disciplines.

The links between public tendencies and the urban design framework of Brisbane’s public squares: Mapping urban design frameworks present in Brisbane public squares and the correlating activities of the Australian public

This research seeks to demonstrate the ways in which urban design factors, individually and in various well-considered arrangements, stimulate and encourage social activities in Brisbane’s public squares through the mapping and analysis of user behaviour. No design factors contribute to public space in isolation, so the combinations of different design factors, contextual and social impacts as well as local climate are considered to be highly influential to the way in which Brisbane’s public engages with public space. It is this local distinctiveness that this research seeks to ascertain. The research firstly pinpoints and consolidates the design factors identified and recommended in existing literature and then maps the identified factors as they are observed at case study sites in Brisbane. This is then set against observational mappings of the site’s corresponding user activities and engagement. These mappings identify a number of patterns of behaviour; pertinently that “activated” areas of social gathering actively draw people in, and the busier a space is, both the frequency and duration of people lingering in the space increases. The study finds that simply providing respite from the urban environment (and/or weather conditions) does not adequately encourage social interaction and that people friendly design factors can instigate social activities which, if coexisting in a public space, can themselves draw in further users of the space. One of the primary conclusions drawn from these observations is that members of the public in Brisbane are both actively and passively social and often seek out locations where “people-watching” and being around other members of the public (both categorised as passive social activities) are facilitated and encouraged. Spaces that provide respite from the urban environment but that do not sufficiently accommodate social connections and activities are less favourable and are often left abandoned despite their comparable tranquillity and available space.

Identification of poisonous plants in the heart of public squares of ribeirão Preto SP

Toxic plants, many ornamentals, may be present in gardens, backyards, parks, vases, squares and vacant lots around the cities. Some of these plants are well known and exuberant, with strong color and decorative aspects, but when swallowed or handled, can cause severe intoxication specially in children. The main objective was to identify the poisonous plants found in public squares of Ribeirão Preto downtown, among five squares: XV de Novembro Square, Carlos Gomes Square, Bandeiras Square, Luís de Camões Square and Sete de Setembro Square. In this study, a literature review was performed in order to know the species that have been recorded as toxic plant. For the species in question, the common name and therapeutic indication were recorded. Over all evaluated squares toxic species were found. Sete de Setembro Square was the most frequent species in a total of seven toxical species. The most common species in the surveyed places were: Euphorbia pulcherrima, Buxus semprevirens and Dracaena fragrans, popularly known as Poinsettia, Boxwood and Cornstalk Dracaena, respectively. The importance of doing studies in urban squares is to improve care to ensure the afforestation process of the cities.

Composition of the Ant Fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Public Squares in Southern Brazil

The composition of the ant fauna was examined in public squares of three municipalities that compose the hydrographic basin of the Upper Tiete River: Biritiba Mirim, Salesopolis, and Mogi das Cruzes. Richness, frequency of occurrence, similarity, and influence of seasons on the species composition were examined. The method was standardized as sampling units consisted of a set of three baits arranged in a triangle with vertices two meters apart. Sardines in oil were used as attractant. A total of 86 species was collected. Myrmicinae and Pheidole were the richest subfamily and genus, respectively. Eighty species were collected in Mogi das Cruzes, 49 in Salesopolis, and 45 in Biritiba Mirim, with 34 species common to the three areas. The ordination analysis (NMDS) revealed the presence of two distinct communities: one in Mogi das Cruzes and another in Biritiba Mirim-Salesopolis. These data were supported by the dendogram based on the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index. This result might be associated with the distinct geographic and demographic characteristics of the areas. Regarding seasonality, the composition of the fauna of Mogi das Cruzes is independent of the season of the year, unlike the observed in Biritiba Mirim and Salesopolis.

Urban growth in the Kathmandu Valley: The transformation of public space

Traditional towns of the Kathmandu Valley boast a fine provision of public spaces in their neighbourhoods. Historically, a hierarchy of public space has been distributed over the entire town with each neighbourhood centered around more or less spacious public squares. However, rapid growth of these towns over the past decades has resulted in haphazard development of new urban areas with little provision of public space. Recent studies indicate that the loss of public space is a major consequence of the uncontrolled urban growth of the Kathmandu Valley and its new neighbourhoods. This paper reviews the current urban growth of the Kathmandu Valley and its impact on the development of public space in new neighbourhoods. The preliminary analysis of the case study of three new neighbourhoods shows that the formation and utilization of neighbourhood public space exhibit fundamental differences from those found in the traditional city cores. The following key issues are identified in this paper: a) Governance and regulations have been a challenge to regulate rapid urban growth; b) The current pattern of neighbourhood formation is found to be different from that of traditional neighbourhoods due to the changes with rapid urban development; c) Public spaces have been compromised in both planned and unplanned new neighbourhoods in terms of their quantity and quality; d) The changing provision of public space has contributed to its changing use and meaning; and e) The changing demographic composition, changing society and life style have had direct impact on the declining use of public space. Moreover, the management of public spaces remains a big challenge due to their changing nature and the changing governance. The current transformation public space does not appear to be conducive, and has led to adversely changing social environment of the new neighbourhoods.

The role of digital screens in urban life: New opportunities for placemaking

Large digital screens are becoming prevalent across today’s cities dispersing into everyday urban spaces such as public squares and cultural precincts. Examples, such as Federation Square, demonstrate the opportunities for using digital screens to create a sense of place and to add long-term social, cultural and economic value for citizens, who live and work in those precincts. However, the challenge of implementing digital screens in new urban developments is to ensure they respond appropriately to the physical and sociocultural environment in which they are placed. Considering the increasing rate at which digital screens are being embedded into public spaces, it is surprising that the programs running on these screens still seem to be stuck in the cinematic model. The availability of advanced networking and interaction technologies offers opportunities for information access that goes beyond free-to-air television and advertising. This chapter revisits the history and current state of digital screens in urban life and discusses a series of research studies that involve digital screens as interface between citizens and the city. Instead of focusing on technological concerns, the chapter presents a holistic analysis of these studies, with the aim to move towards a more comprehensive understanding of the sociocultural potential of this new media platform, and how the digital content is linked with the spatial quality of the physical space, as well as the place and role of digital screens within the smart city movement.

Mises à distances. Ethnographie des places publiques centrales de Cluj-« Napoca » (Roumanie) dans le postsocialisme

Cette recherche porte sur le changement social dans la période postsocialiste à Cluj-« Napoca », une ville transylvaine de Roumanie. En mobilisant une approche en termes de rapports sociaux à l’espace, l’étude explore les principes de différenciation tant spatialement que socialement. Les concepts d’« espace public » et de « lieu » ont permis une analyse aux multiples facettes menée selon quatre axes : matérialité et la visibilité des espaces, sphère publique-politique, vie sociale publique, investissements et appropriations individuelles. La thèse examine ainsi les activités qui se déroulent dans les places publiques centrales, les investissements spatiaux, les rituels quotidiens et les manifestations contestataires, les multiples attachements ethniques et religieux des habitants. L’ethnographie des places publiques centrales de Cluj-« Napoca » a mis en évidence une « faible classification des espaces » centraux de la ville, traduite par une grande diversité sociale. Les marques ethnicisantes parsemées à Cluj-« Napoca » renvoient aux groupes ethniques, mais aussi à d’autres enjeux qui relèvent du processus de restructuration du champ politique dans le postsocialisme. Dans le même registre, les stratégies de type ethnique sont mobilisées pour désigner de nouveaux critères de différenciation sociale et pour redéfinir d’anciennes catégories sociales. Oublis, silences et exigences d’esthétisation reflètent des demandes implicites des habitants pour redéfinir les cadres de la politique. Finalement, la thèse montre comment l’espace public à Cluj-« Napoca » pendant la période postsocialiste relève d’un processus continuel de diversification sociale et d’invention des Autres par d’incessantes mises à distance. L’espace public n’est pas la recherche de ce que pourrait constituer le vivre ensemble, mais la quête de ce qui nous menace et qu’il faut mettre à distance.

Les fonctions des places publiques montréalaises : convergences ou divergences des usages planifiés?

Ce mémoire s'inscrit dans la pratique de l'architecture du paysage, du design urbain et de l'urbanisme. La recherche se construit autour d'un questionnement sur le rôle des professionnels de l'aménagement dans la prise en compte des usages dans les processus de projet d'aménagement de places publiques montréalaises. Une double étude de cas et une analyse comparative permettent de voir comment se fait le passage de la programmation de la place à l’appropriation de l'espace à la faveur du travail des professionnels impliqués dans les diverses phases du projet, y compris les usages et les activités non spécifiquement prévus mais rendus possibles par la nature des aménagements réalisés. Les places Gérald-Godin (arrondissement Plateau Mont-Royal) et Simon-Valois (arrondissement Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) ont étés choisies parce qu'elles sont situées dans des quartiers à vocation résidentielle et pour leur aménagement assez récent. Ces projets sont intéressants parce qu'ils participent à la revalorisation de leur quartier respectif et à l'apport d'espace public de qualité. Or, l'internationalisation des villes et leur marchandisation les positionnent dans un contexte de compétitivité où le renouvellement urbain est un enjeu important. Conséquemment, les principaux problèmes qui ont motive ce mémoire sont celui du renouvellement urbain, de l'identité collective et des appropriations de l'espace public.

A cidade sem barreiras é para todos?: avaliação das condições de deslocamento no bairro da Cidade Alta, Natal/RN

In this present work, the conditions of displacements and the behaviors of the users are evaluated, face to the physical adequacies in accessibility in the inserted area in the central quadrilateral of the Quarter of Cidade Alta, in the City of Natal/RN, space clipping established by its great meaning historical and cultural. For this reason such area was a target of an integrated actions plan during the years of 1993 and 1998, with the implantation of part of the Project CIDADE SEM BARREIRAS (City without Barriers) and, later, the implementation of the Project CIDADE PARA TODOS's proposals (City for All), having as supports the constant Brazilian norms inserted into the NB9050/1994 and in the Municipal law number 4.090/92, effective ones in the period of the interventions. Considering that the carried through actions at the time were directed to the elimination of the architectural barriers to guarantee the right to go and to come, the research received a human universe formed by all the people in situation of displacement in the central area of the interventions in the quarter of the Cidade Alta, independently of their locomotive or sensorial conditions, emphasizing the aspects most excellent how much to the accessibility of the sidewalk, as promotional of mobility, integration and urban organization, as well as of the public squares of that one quadrilateral, conceived, originally, as spaces of aggregation and social inclusion. The work appealed to the direct comment and the gotten results had been collated with the ex port facto law and technique norms, of the year of 2004, and with the legal devices contained in the Federal Decree number 5.296/2004, as way to certify the levels of efficiency of these adaptations in that it says respect to the current conditions of demanded accessibility and urban mobility

Percepção dos usuários nos espaços públicos: avaliação pós-ocupação em três praças de Natal-RN

The research investigates the acting and the importance for the users of the public squares located predominantly in residential areas. It presents the results of the posoccupation evaluations accomplished in three squares, whose physical, environmental characteristics, equipments and fumitures are different in its qualities and amounts, taking in consideration aspects related to the users' physical and psychological comfort and of the inhabitants of the I spill. The collection of data involved physical risings and of files, observations behavious, application of questionnaires and interviews, analyzed qualitative as quantitatively so much for a larger precision and validity of the investigation. The results were obtained through the relationship among the users' perception the environmental attributes and the different levels of apropriation/use of the studied places. They indicate that the aspects composicionais of physical order of the space affects the type and the intensity of use of the squares intimately, contributing positive or negatively for its valor. It is evidenced like this, that the low freqüentation of the public squares of Natal, is due mainly to referring aspects to the physical quality and the amount of the fumitures and urban equipments. It is ended that the investments and the physical planning of these public spaces should be based in the real knowledge of the aspirations of the population objective, in way to allow its largest use and valor

A magia do cinema na praça:apropriação do espaço e sociabilidade em Salvador-BA

It s in the city spaces, molded from the uses and daily appropriations, that life is woven, as a product of the social relationships from the accumulation of history along with the present day fabric. Within this relationship, the old and the new are elements which make up this tapestry, as a result of the contribution of successive generations. The public square is seen as an example of this relationship, since it consists of a fertile space for opportunities of urban life coexistence. It is within the trace of these considerations that the present study emerges regarding the appropriation and sociability of the Tomé de Sousa Square, located in the city of Salvador, BA, having as its main focus the special relation between the cinema and the public square, as it relates to the space of the exhibition of cinematographic art. The showing of films in public squares makes possible a distinctive means of appropriation which has occurred ever since the beginning of the cinema. Today in Brazil, projects of this nature abound, which aim at presenting the seventh art to a great portion of the population which doesn t have access to conventional movie theater projection rooms. This particular Projeto Cinema na Praça Cinema in the Square Project carried out in Salvador, has become the empirical reference point for such work. This journey reveals the fascination that this great art has woven through time, attracting and charming multitudes. The cinema touches people in a special way, stirring up affectionate feelings, which are reflected in multiple social practices. Regarding this work, what stands out above all are the projections in the squares, initiatives which make it possible for the films to be watched collectively. What was taken into account in order to carry out this work were the reports of those who came regularly to watch the cinema in the Square sessions, those involved with the cinema projects team, and the film makers. To do the work, besides a bibliographical revision, observations were made of participants in the Tomé de Sousa Square, taken from semi-structured interviews with people involved with the film projection projects and those who came regularly to the cinema in the Square sessions. Also investigations were made in newspapers, printed magazines and the internet, from document and iconographic sources. The photographic documentation proved to be an important contribution to the field work. The research therefore develops from the understanding that the social practices are what make possible the uses of and the appropriation of the spaces. Within this perspective the public square emerges as a privileged locus where possibilities flourish for multiple manifestations that social practices can generate

A representação da mulher e as questões de gênero na toponímia urbana de Caicó-RN

This piece wants to investigate the relations between gender identities and the toponymy in Caicó city. To do so, we will discuss the reason why places are named, the practice of naming places, so as the process of choosing the names of neighborhoods, streets and city public squares. Thereby, we will investigate the space changes in Caicó city since its formation, as a village, until the decade of 1970. This period of time was chosen in order to discuss the toponymic process of the city, besides having noticed that public places and locations in Caico with the feminine nominations only appear from the second half of the 60s decade and in the beginning of the 70s. This way, we preferred to investigate who were the first Caicó women to have their names in the urban space; why women only begin to have homage from the decade of the 60s on; what is the importance and the location of the places with feminine names; and what gender image is there on this homage

As praças e a parceria público-privada em Natal/RN

Defined as public space or space open of common use, the square is a fundamental space for the urban life. Its function depends so much of the historical context, as of its location in the city, but general way, it is associated to leisure activities. In spite of its importance, many Brazilian squares are abandoned and degraded, some are used improperly, other they never left the paper and they are wastelands, most of the time, transformed in garbage deposits. The lack of appropriate equipments in the squares or to the precariousness of the same ones, such as banks, illumination and places for the different age groups; the lack of the "nature", in other words, of green; and the maintenance lack is some of the problems observed at the squares of Natal/RN. The maintenance is essential factor for the own existence of the square, so much in relation to the physical quality of the space, as in relation to the presence, or no, of users. In that work, we studied the squares of Natal/RN and the partnership public-private as form of shared administration of the public space. Our objective is to understand as it feels that partnership in the production and maintenance of squares in Natal/RN and which the benefits for the involved parts. For so much, we rescued the production of squares historically in the city of Natal/RN; We analyzed the legislation that regularizes the adoption of squares in some Brazilian municipal districts and the Bill of Adoption of Public Squares and of Sports and Green Areas in Natal/RN; and, last we analyzed three natalenses squares that had private investment in the construction, it reforms and/or maintenance. The "partnerships" involved exchange for land, environmental and social compensations, always assisting to the private interests, and nothing was registered or documented in the competent public organs. With that dissertation we wanted to contribute for the valorization of the squares and the relevance of the construction, renewal and maintenance of those public spaces in the city of Natal/RN, as life spaces, of encounters, of leisure

As praças públicas de Natal/RN no âmbito dos problemas socioambientais urbanos

This paper presents the public square as a subsystem of the city for the potential integration of elements 'natural' and built environment. But sometimes the suitability of projects and the social processes involved are not compatible and favorable to their real functions in urban space. The city of Natal, with a population of 803,739 inhabitants has 253 public parks not uniformly distributed in the urban area, but mostly in central areas and their absence in some peripheral neighborhoods. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to analyze the quality and spatiality of the city's public squares within the urban socio-environmental problems. For this, use of simple random sampling to define the sample and the proportional allocation of districts, totaling 168 squares to be raised. We prepared a form to collect data on the field that includes aspects of leisure, infrastructure and environment. For each square sampled was calculated Square Quality Index (PQI), then calculating the average per IQP neighborhood. The rates found were crossed with census data and Municipal Public Administration by neighborhood, using multivariate analysis. We generated maps, charts and tables, considered appropriate to each question format, focused comparison. The public square appears as an indicator of environmental challenges present in intra-urban spaces of the city. Their spatial distribution is not consistent demand population, both by disposition and by how much. In terms of quality are characterized by different levels of inadequacy and degradation aspects of leisure, environmental and infrastructure, often causing disfigurement, abandonment and improper occupation in such spaces. Multivariate analysis point to a central concentration and their problems in certain administrative units, not only as regards the public squares, but also to aspects of education, income, and other violence, perpetuating the problem. The various levels of inadequacy and degradation of public squares have been more blatant in the poorest neighborhoods of the city, pointing to a structural pattern associated with the intrinsic characteristics of the neighborhood and the socioeconomic profile of the local population. These are problems of social and environmental dimensions, threaded in and influenced the political, economic and broader social process of transformation of the city and the urban. Based on an uneven process in which space necessarily reflect the contradictions inherent in the active forces and interests. Thus evidencing the importance of managing the necessary public effectively engaged with the problems that are present there, in order to equate them, without being prioritized certain areas of the city at the expense of others

Praças públicas caicoense: territorialidades, sociabilidades e identidades

The city, with all its complexity, is marked by the different uses that emerge and give the current composition of its forms, functions, processes and structures (SANTOS, 2008). These uses are responsible for defining the territoriality that engender public squares, especially from the projection of the practices of sociability and pleasure experienced by social groups and urban households, giving rise to the emergence of agreements and conflicts, especially when the public sphere and negotiates a private residence in the same territory. Thus, from analyzes performed in the public squares of the city of Caico / RN in the current context, did a survey of territorialities undertaken by these groups and social aggregates. These squares were seized territories while public use, but marked by the presence of private, becoming as important elements of the urban space caicoense