Public Space 3.0

In the era of neoliberal urbanism, the public space is declining. Operating between two layers that represent two different types of public spaces – the social-establishment space and its remnants, and the economy and commercially-driven space of the present, the project suggests an alternative reading and the creation of a third type of public space.

At the strategic level, a programmatic and paradigmatic shuffle is proposed, producing a type of public domain, experienced as a continuous urban public space. Two examples for this new reading are presented, within two sites, each representing a different kind of public.

The one – Histadrut Square, represents the type of public produced by the establishment, and the other – Kikar Hamedina (“The State Square”), represents the commercial-economic type of public space. By juxtaposing contrasting forces and elements, a new kind of public space is created, one that belongs to all of its visitors and is shaped by them.

Thus, on the backdrop of the decline of the public space, and by learning and critiquing its national-establishment-related expressions of the past, the project proposes a third, democratic and dominant type of public space.