How Much Public Space is Needed

Densities, Elisa Silva, Essay, Formats, Middle Density, Pure Space, Territory and mobility, Topics, Urban Paradigms

Active Public Spaces, Cities, Citizens, City development, Community, Design guidelines, Ecology, Essay, Housing, Informal settlements, Infrastructure, Landfill, Latin America, Leisure, Local Awareness, Mobility, Nature, Neighborhood, Open Space, Operative Infrastructure, Park, Pedestrian realm, Population, Public Space, Social Inclusion, Transformation, Urban culture, Urban Policy, Urban settlement, Urban strategy, Waste management

Excerpt from "Pure Space" by Elisa Silva. Published by Actar Publishers -- https://lccn.loc.gov/2019951127

If creating public space in spontaneous settlements were embraced as an effective investment to increase social inclusion and better integrate Latin American cities, how much would have to be built? Quantifying this endeavor and defining a target scope would help optimize resource allocation and public policy. To begin with, public spaces are not as prevalent in Latin American cities as they are in other latitudes of the world. Because of their scarcity, the few that do exist are often heavily overused, and their deterioration exceeds maintenance budgets. Others are almost completely overlooked by people due to their lack of upkeep and poor integration with the surroundings.