Heterotopic Pocket Spaces through Intermittent Occupancy
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Date
2024
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Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
In the contemporary context of a profound crisis of public spaces in general, and the Portuguese context in particular, questions of intensive ‘touristification’, fast gentrification, and concentrated immigration are reshaping the use and values of traditional urban spaces. The introduction of new public actors, new communities, and associated different social practices, often lead to feelings of estrangement of the public space, as well as to the emergence of different intermittent uses of public space. In this context we aim to discover different formal and social conditions of space especially within ‘off-map’ places whose use and value are currently being rediscovered and/or shifted. In this article, we propose a new approach to public space as a threefold notion based on: (1) the idea of Pocket spaces, (2) Foucault’s heterotopia and (3) intermittent occupation. We analyse fifteen different potential heterotopic pocket spaces from a threefold perspective composed by the (1) morphological qualities of pocket spaces, (2) the socio-spatio-temporal relationships of Foucault’s heterotopia and (3) the social use based on the capacity of the space to accommodate different uses and practices. We argue that, due to its complexity and ability to embrace contradictions and conflicts, heterotopic pocket spaces can be used as a valuable concept for describing, analysing, and creating speculative designs for a more democratic city, embracing and re-signifying possible estrangement of the public space in the contemporary, everchanging context.
Keywords: heterotopia, urban pocket spaces, intermittent occupancy, public space
Description
Game changer? Planning for just and sustainable urban regions, Paris, 8-12th July 2024
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CC-BY