AB314 CULTURAL STUDIES 3

SEMESTER 2: COURSEWORK 2

“WHAT MAKES A GOOD PUBLIC SPACE?”

Before I come into facts and arguments about what exactly has made some of the public

spaces in Rome amazing and astoundingly breathtaking, let’s firstly make clarity of the

title on what does it mean by “good” on its own? The word “good” can be define in a

variety of meaning, depending on one’s opinion but here let me clear it up with the

dictionary. “Good” here comes to term with to be desired or approved of, having the

required qualities; of a high standard, giving pleasure; enjoyable or satisfying. (Oxford

dictionary, 2011).On the other hand, Public space here means B:AH B:LAH BLAH.

That’s one definition

Pertaining to the definitions given, of what I have closely come to understand and know

how a public space is good and enjoyable, that would be of Buchanan Street on its own.

There are two places that I was very excited to see, not just because of the fame,

But it has been highly regarded as places you must see if you are in ROME, and in as well

as places to be before you die.

The Piazza is just lapping in all the delicious beauty. For me in first glance it was not

what I had in mind: Huge space, Should have a rather grand entrance into it, but as I

emerge closer to the centre of the piazza, sitting down at a bench nearing one of the

fountain that was called the fountains of four gods, I began to feel the sparkling majesty
of the place . with its explosion of joyous curves. It wasn’t just the fountains that made

the place alive; there were little happenings around the square that adds flavor into the

cornucopia of excitement. As I was sitting there wondering why there is so much

commodity about being here, trying to see exactly what makes this place the place to

be? There were people walking in and out of the place via corners of the piazza, there

were 7 accesses in and out of the piazza. One can find tourists, intellectuals, kids

playing, freaks and elegant “signori, painters and artists selling their works right in the

square. This Piazza has been a circus for nineteen centuries and, as a pedestrian island

filled with churning crowds licking their ice cream cones and having their caricatures

sketched; it continues the "Roman Holiday".

Much of what is seen today in the Piazza Navona is a result of one family: the Pamphilis.

In the 1600s, the Pamphili family gave Piazza Navona a major remodel.

Piazza Navona

History:

FIRST READING

Designed for the athletic contest of the nude Greek contest, the stadium was

inaugurated by the emperor Domitian, sometimes before AD 86, when the first game of

the new games in honor of Jupiter capitolinus. The Piazza Navona square was built

exactly on the area of emperor Domitian’s stadium (81-96 AD), and retains the
stadium’s oblong shape with a rounded north end. It was the largest in ancient Rome,

larger than the Coliseum, and could seat 50,000 spectators.

The name of the stadium was “Circus Agonalis” (competition arena), which became

corrupted to “n’Agona”, and eventually “Navona”. Thanks to hydraulic engineering,

naval battles engaging up to 3,000 antagonists were performed (they were called

“naumachiae”).The stadium later became a baroque jewel, with masterpieces of Bernini

(the Fountain of the Four Rivers and the Fountain of the Moor), Calderari (the Fountain

of Neptune) and Borromini (the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone).

Ruins of the ancient stadium can still be seen under the palaces (please see the bottom

photo). Today the Piazza strikes visitors for its harmony and colours, combined with its

elegance and charm. Varied people stroll or attend the piazza. One can find tourists,

intellectuals, kids playing, freaks and elegant “signori, painters and artists selling their

works right in the square.

The kaleidoscopic, lively, cosmopolitan atmosphere blending history, art, and love for

life, i.e. the peculiar Roman character, reaches possibly its highest level, making the

Eternal City such a magical place.

Piazza Navona has been for long used as a place for meeting and processions. During

daytime life seems to be revolving around the open-air cafes, and around the artists’

stands (you can have your caricature or painting at a modest cost). Like all Rome’s

squares and streets, the piazza changes aspect at night, when the atmosphere becomes

imaginative, people seem to be mesmerized, and enjoying themselves more than

daytime.
In December, until Epiphany, a season market is held. Traditionally, parents come here

to buy toys for their children.

Of the 3 fountains of the Piazza, fed by the Aqua Virgo aqueduct, the most renowned is

the “Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi” (Fountain of Four Rivers – 1651 AD), by a mature

Bernini, following the decision of Pope Innocent X.

An obelisk from the Circus Maxentius was erected over a rocky grotto, from which a lion

and a horse emerge.

The obelisk appears to be resting on an open cavity. The large figures represent the

main rivers of the four continents known at that time: the Danube, the River Plate, the

Ganges, and the Nile (with a veiled head to indicate that its source was still unknown at

that time). The church of Sant’Agnese in Agone (1652 – 1670) according to tradition,

stands on the site of prostitution where St. Agnes, stripped naked, was saved by

dishonour by the miraculous growth of hair. Many architects worked on it (Rainaldi,

who gave it the Greek cross design, Borromini, Bernini, Pietro da Cortona), although the

concave facade, the dome, and the two belfries all having dynamic unity are primarily

the work of Borromini.

http://www.piazzanavona-rome.com/2008/06/20/history-piazza-navona-navona-

square/

Second reading

Piazza Navona

Little is square about this beautiful square-with its

explosion of joyous curves. And little is otherworldly

about this Papal creation. Sensuous Piazza Navona typifies Baroque Rome, with

masterpieces by Bernini and Borromini. And like all the great Italian Piazzas, it has

served for centuries as a glorious outdoor theater for enjoying the drama and the

comedy of life.

Typically Roman is the super-position of a Baroque pleasure area exactly over an ancient

Roman monument. The 17th Century Pope, like the 1st Century Emperor, created a

place of private glory as well as mob entertainment. This Piazza has been a circus for

nineteen centuries and, as a pedestrian island filled with churning crowds licking their

ice cream cones and having their caricatures sketched; it continues the "Roman

Holiday".

The name Navona is a Medieval corruption of the Latin word for gymnastic contest:

"agon "which also explains why the great Baroque church in this Piazza is called St.

Agnese in Agone. If you walk out of the single exit at the North (curved) end of the

piazza, and turn left, you will soon see on your left a glass-enclosed section of Emperor

Domitian's original stadium (16, Piazza Tor Sanguina), and notice how much lower the

ground level was in those days.

In the 17C Queen Christina of Sweden, after abdicating and becoming a Catholic (but

certainly not a nun), paraded around this piazza in a highly ornate carriage - of the kind

you can see in paintings at the Museum of Rome in the adjacent Palazzo Braschi.
In its earliest days, the arena could be flooded for staging mock sea battles. And a

century ago it would still be covered with water in August so that the ornate carriages of

the great papal families could circle around, providing a cool respite for Roman nobles

and prelates who had not escaped to their country villas.

Nowadays, the Christmas season transforms this piazza into a rowdy marketplace, filled

with booths, including shooting galleries and shops selling figurines for Nativity Scenes:

miniature mangers with donkeys, babes and Wiseman.

Piazza Navona

History

86 AD. Emperor Domitian built a long U-shaped stadium here; an arena for athletic

contests, surrounded by a 15,000-seat stone grandstand, in a sparsely inhabited

suburb of Rome called Campus Martius.

Middle Ages. The stadium, some of whose arcades had become brothels, was

adjacent to the route successive Popes took when traveling from their residence in

the Lateran Palace to St. Peter's, Christendom's most important church. The original

seats remained in use till the 15th Century, when sport-loving Romans came to watch

jousts between brightly caparisoned knights.

1644. This was the site of a small building owned by the Pamphili family when one of
 its sons became Pope Innocent X. Self-glorification inspired him to transform the

stadium into a beautiful square dominated by three Baroque masterpieces: Bernini's

most glorious Four Rivers Fountain in the center, the highly original Sant'Agnese in

Agone church he commissioned Borromini to complete as a family chapel, and the

vast new Palazzo Pamphili where he installed his lady friend and sister-in-law.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

(Fountain of the Four Rivers). Along with the Trevi Fountain,

this is one of Rome's most glorious designs for decorating the

piazzas with the sprinkle and tinkle of water.

Here Bernini built up a sculptural wonderland of gigantic

figures in the diverse environments of four of the world's great rivers, and topped it

with an Egyptian obelisk. Notice that directly under the figures is an empty grotto, a

mannerist architectural trick, which makes the enormously heavy obelisk appear to be

floating in air.

The Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Plate represent the four corners of the world.

The immense cost of this complicated design, involving four other sculptors who did the

individual river gods, (Claude Poussin sculpted Ganges) prompted Innocent X to levy a

tax on bread; so, for the rest of his life he was reviled with slogans and street signs

attacking him and Olympia (whose name was distorted into "Olim Pia" the slang
equivalent of "she was virtuous").

In 1651 Pope Innocent X held a contest to choose the sculptor who should crown his

great piazza with a central monument. Originally, a much less elaborate fountain was to

be created by the Pope's protégé, Borromini. But his arch-rival Bernini managed to steal

the commission away, by getting Innocent X's not-so-innocent favorite and sister-in-law,

Olympia Maidalchini, to dangle a solid silver model of this fountain before the eyes of

the Pope - and then give it to him.

Fontana del Moro

(Fountain of The Moor) At the South end of the Piazza, opposite Palazzo Pamphili,

Bernini added (1653) the central figure of an African cuddling a dolphin to the 1575

fountain designed by Giacomo Della Porta.

Bernini was an indefatigable designer who usually had his sketches realized by

assistants. At the North end of the Piazza, the third fountain was redesigned in the 19C

to match the Moro Fountain.

St. Agnese in Agone

Look carefully at the front of this church to appreciate Borromini's inventive use of

rippling in-and-out curves that give depth to the thin facade he transformed (1657) into

a grandiose Papal monument.

Borromini's plans always call for sober, basically white interiors, so you will be surprised

by the somewhat overpowering richness you find inside. Bernini's use of warm-colored

marble predominates, and he ordered the frescoes in the dome (1670-90, Ciro Ferri)

and pendentives (1662-72, Baciccio).

The church's monumentality is Borromini's, its flamboyancy Bernini's. The square just

lapping in all the delicious beauty.

St. Agnese in Agone

History

304 AD. Wellborn 13-year old Agnes was made to

strip for the clients of a whorehouse near Domitian's

Arena. Thanks to her faith in Christ, Agnes' hair

immediately grew long enough to hide her

embarrassment. When attempts to torch her body failed, she was stabbed to death.

The Church later rewarded her piety with canonization (see also St. Agnese Fuori le

Mura).

1652. Pope Innocent X Pamphili commissioned Girolamo Rainaldi and his son Carlo to

make him a glorified family chapel incorporating St. Agnes' much revered shrine.

Perhaps he thought little Agnes' innocence would also cover up the reputation of his

favorite, Olympia Maidalchini.

1653. Innocent replaced the Rainaldis with Borromini, who pulled down their front

wall and designed the complex plasticity you see in the facade. He also lightened the

cramped interior.

1657. A commission including Bernini took over, but did not modify the unity of

Borromini's masterpiece except by gilding and sculpting and using colored marble.

Piazza Navona (Map F 5)

http://web.tiscalinet.it/romaonlineguide/Pages/eng/rbarocca/sBMy4.htm

3rd reading

Piazza Navona and Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain

Nina Miller

Honors in Rome - Summer 2005

I. Introduction
Piazza Navona has been Rome’s most popular secular assembly space for generations. It

is built on the spot of Emperor Domitian’s stadium that was constructed in 86 A.D. Over

the years, the long, nearly oval piazza has been the site of diversions of all kinds from

mock sea battles to medieval jousts. From 1477 to 1869, the piazza was used as a

marketplace, and from the 1600s to as recent as the 1800s, it was flooded every
weekend in August for the entertainment of the Roman citizens. Much of what is seen

today in the Piazza Navona is a result of one family: the Pamphilis. In the 1600s, the

Pamphili family gave Piazza Navona a major remodel.

The Pamphili family had been a presence in Rome for a long time. They moved to Rome

from Gubbio in the 1400s. Over the years, family members had begun to buy property in
the area surrounding the Piazza Navona. In autumn of 1644, the nephew and sister-in-

law of Cardinal Giambattisa Pamphili (who would later become Pope Innocent X) bought

land next to the cardinal’s house with the idea of combining their properties into one

large palace that fronted the Piazza Navona. They felt that this would be the perfect

showcase to house one of the leading families in Rome in what was then the largest

civic space in the city.

As the Palazzo Pamphili began to take shape, Pope Innocent realized that the character

of the Piazza was changing. It was no longer merely a market and gathering place, but

rather one of the city’s most important squares and home to the first family of Rome. As

the buildings around the piazza were being built and refurbished, it became clear that a

single unifying focal point was needed. Innocent decided upon incorporating an ancient

obelisk that had just been found at the Circus of Maxentius into a fountain to serve as

the centerpiece of his piazza. Now all that was needed was someone to design the

fountain.

Gianlorenzo Bernini was one of the most well-known, talented sculptors of the time.

One might assume, therefore, that he would have been the obvious first choice to

design such a grand piece of art. As it turns out, however, this was not the case. During

the reign of Innocent’s predecessor, Urban XIII, Bernini enjoyed the position of the

pope’s preferred architect. He lost this position, however, when Innocent became pope.

Urban XIII led an unpopular regime and spent a lot of the church’s money on personal

items and family expenses. Because of this, Innocent decided that he did not want
anything to do with Urban, including, therefore, Bernini. Fortunately, however, the

fountain that stands today is indeed Bernini’s work; thus it can be assumed that he

found a way around Innocent’s initial exclusion.

History tells two stories of how Bernini accomplished winning the commission for the

Four Rivers Fountain. In one story, the pope’s nephew encouraged Bernini to create a

model. He then placed Bernini’s model strategically in the Pamphili Palace so that the

pope would have to walk around it. After seeing the model, Innocent was completely

won over and claimed, “If one does not want to carry out [Bernini’s] designs, one must

not see them.” In a second story, it is said that while other sculptors were making

models out of clay and wax, Bernini made his out of silver. He then presented this model

to the pope’s sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia, who was amply impressed and managed to

persuade the pope to accept Bernini’s design. In either case, what is known for sure is

that Bernini got the commission and created what stands today as a masterful work of

art.

II. Description

The basic design of the fountain is a travertine rock surrounded by four river gods,

topped with a large Egyptian obelisk. The four river gods represent the four major

continents of the world, as they were known in the 1600s. One surprising element of

this fountain is the posture of the river gods. Traditionally, river gods were depicted in a

lounging-position; they were hardly ever seen doing anything. In Bernini’s fountain,
however, their twists, turns, and muscular contractions simulate the motions of the

rivers they personify.

The river god on the northwest corner of the fountain is

for the Rio de la Plata and represents the Americas. A bag of coins spilling out under the

god’s feet symbolizes the riches of the New World. The river god is depicted as a black

man, which reflects the fact that, at the time, very little was known about the Americas.
 To the left of the Rio de la Plata god is the god of the

Danube River representing Europe. This statue has one of the most energetic poses of

all the river gods. His body is twisted to the right and his arms are stretched out in order

to support the large papal coat of arms at the base of the obelisk. Between the Danube

and Rio de la Plata gods is a large horse. The horse was known to be native to both

Europe and the Americas, thus representing a connection between the two continents.

The Ganges River, representing Asia, is seen on the other side of the Danube. This river

god straddles an oar to represent the navigability of the river through India.
On the other side of this god is the god of the Nile River representing the fourth

continent known at the time, Africa. The face of this god is covered with a cloth to

symbolize the fact that the source of the Nile was unknown at the time the fountain was

made. In between the Nile and Ganges gods is a lion and palm tree, known to be native

to both Asia and Africa. The lion crouches down toward the water ready to drink, and

the palm tree sways in the wind. The four gods are situated around a large travertine

rock that serves as the base of the obelisk.

The travertine rock was carved to look like the quarry that the stone for the obelisk

came from. In order to make the fountain more dramatic and astonish viewers to this

day, Bernini carved out the center of the travertine so that a space through both sides of

the base is open. The obelisk that rests on top of the travertine base was carved in Egypt

and brought to Rome by Emperor Domitian. Domitian had a stonesman carve

hieroglyphics that refer to Domian as “Eternal pharaoh” and Vespasian and Titus as
gods. Resting on top of the obelisk is a dove, representative of both the Pamphili family

and also the Holy Spirit.

III. Function

The Four Rivers Fountain has an amazing ability to manipulate its viewers’ movement.

Its massive size demands the attention of any visitor coming to the Piazza Navona. Once

the viewer is drawn in, the fountain then seems to draw the viewer in a circular motion.

There is not one single position that offers a satisfactory view of the entire fountain. In

order to see all four river gods, or to find the front of the lion whose rear can be seen on

one side, an onlooker must continue moving around the fountain. The idea of a circular

motion is especially fitting for the position of the Four Rivers Fountain. It is placed in the

center of an oval piazza; thus, by circling the fountain, one in turn ends up circling the

entire piazza.

The movement of the viewer is not the only effect this fountain imposes on its visitors.

Bernini carved the base of the fountain such that one is left to wonder how the giant

obelisk is supported at all. He hollowed out the travertine base so that you can actually

see through the sculpture from one side to the other. The sense of disbelief that this

wonder inflicts adds to the dramatic effect of the fountain. At the time the fountain was

complete, many contemporary critics insisted that the base was not stable enough to

support the obelisk and thought that it would come toppling down at any moment.
Bernini decided to face his critics head-on in order to stop their disapproval once and for

all. He came to the Piazza Navona a couple days after a large storm in which everyone

was “sure” the obelisk would fall and pretended to make an hour-long inspection of the

fountain. After this inspection, Bernini took four strings that were nailed to the tops of

buildings around the piazza and tied them to the top of the obelisk, and then, with a

look of satisfaction, drove off in his carriage.

IV. Patron

As noted earlier, Pope Innocent commissioned the Four Rivers Fountain as a way to add

a unifying focal point to the middle of his piazza. The significance of the fountain goes

far beyond a simple piece of aesthetic decoration, however. Innocent was deliberate in

his rejection of his predecessor’s regime. He wanted nothing to do with Urban XIII, and

he used this fountain as one way of showing that. The aqueduct that feeds the fountains

of the Piazza Navona also goes on to feed the Trevi Fountain -- a fountain that Urban XIII

championed during his reign. Innocent, therefore, decided to divert the water away

from the Trevi Fountain to be used in his own piazza. The Four Rivers Fountain served as

a perfect outlet for such a diversion of water.

The symbolism behind the fountain also served as a propagandistic tool for Pope

Innocent. In a single piece of art, the four continents of the world were united under

one giant obelisk. In essence, Pope Innocent was bringing the whole world to the center
of his piazza and topping it with an obelisk that carried his family emblem, the dove. The

dove also symbolizes the Holy Spirit, so its presence on top of the obelisk additionally

serves to exorcise the pagan implication of the obelisk and place Christianity above all.

The message transmitted by this fountain is one of power and triumph of the church

under Pope Innocent.

The idea of triumph was a particularly important message to be sent. At the time this

fountain was being made, there was a widespread feeling of defeatism throughout the

Catholic community. During the Thirty Years War that ended in 1648 there was a series

of religious and territorial battles between Protestants and Catholics. The treaty that put

an end to this war demanded that the Catholic Church sacrifice important bishoprics in

the north in order to keep Austria and Bohemia under its control. This sacrifice was seen

as a major loss to the Church and left an air of defeatism over the Catholic community.

Innocent’s fountain helped to improve the image of strength of the Church and papacy.

V. Personal Observations

In researching the Piazza Navona and Four Rivers Fountain, I was especially interested in

both the sheer skill of Bernini and also the amount of symbolism that was worked into

the fountain. When I walked up to the fountain for the first time, I was struck with awe

and admiration. Life-like movement was extracted from the marble and captured in

nearly every element of the fountain. The lion crouched in a position about to drink

water while the Ganges River God straddled an oar between his hands. All four river
gods were frozen in very energetic poses adding an element of life to the fountain. The

talent required to design and create such a work of art is beyond my understanding.

Bernini carved the finishing touches on the travertine base, the lion, horse, and palm

tree on site. This is an amazing feat considering the cramped, constricted space he had

to work in.

The most enjoyable aspect of researching the Four Rivers Fountain was discovering the

symbolism behind each figure carved on the fountain. From the covered Nile River

God’s head to the lion and palm tree, every aspect of the fountain had a meaning

behind it. To see the fountain as more than just aesthetically pleasing decoration and to

know its symbols, meanings, and intentions proved to be the most rewarding part of my

studies.

VI. Bibliography

Angelini, Alessandro. Bernini. Milano: Jaca book, 1999.

Briggs, Martin S. “The Genius of Bernini.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs

26.143 (1915). http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0951-

0788%28191502%2926%3C197%3ATGOB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4

Fehrenbach, Frank. “Bernini’s Light.” Art History 28.1 (2005): 17-20.

Marder, T.A. Bernini and the Art of Architecture. New York: Abbeville Press, 1998.

Morrissey, Jake. The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the rivalry that

transformed Rome. New York: William Morrow, 2005.

Petersson, Robert. Bernini and the Excesses of Art. Florence, Italy: M & M, Maschietto &

Ditore, 2002.

Wittkower, Rudolf. Bernini: the sculptor of the Roman Baroque. London: Phaidon Press,

1997.

http://honorsaharchive.blogspot.com/2005/09/ppiazza-navona-and-berninis-four-

rivers.html

4th the fourth reading:

"Piazza" can be translated to mean public square. But the piazzas of Rome are unique

from other famous cities because they are genuine places for lovers of outdoor art to

gather and enjoy such beauty together.

There is no better place to admire the fountain work of the famous artist Bernini than at

the Piazza Navona, where the Fontana dei Fiumi or the "Fountain of the Four Rivers"

was built in 1651. Here in the public square Bernini's students executed four immense

sculptures around an artistic obelisk sitting on top of a central rocky pedestal. One of
those students was Claude Poussin who executed "the Ganges" as part of this fountain

and who later went on to fame and renown himself.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers is a classic Roman fountain that seems alive with a rich

diversity of life from a cactus to palm trees to sea monsters and dozens of wonderful

pieces all mixed together artfully around the unifying column in the middle.

The story goes that to rise the funds for this expensive fountain, taxes were actually

placed on bread which infuriated the citizens of Rome, from the poorest to the

wealthiest. That bit of history now is a fun part of the background of the fountain to

discuss over a relaxing cup of coffee as you watch the busy city go by.

Just across the piazza is another magnificent fountain that has the sea god Triton riding

a dolphin as its centerpiece. The "Fountain of the Moor" is a great place to relax and

take in the activity in the public square, catch some warm sun on your face or discuss

with your travel mates what site to see next in the Piazza Navona. The piazza is full of

things to see, do and taste that will enhance your experience just as much as the

wonderful and artistic fountains outdoors.

Along the rows of cafe's, restaurants and shops in the piazza, you will find dozens of

stalls where merchants offer their wares and services. Here you can stop and have your

portrait skilfully sketched by the many artists who populate this public gathering place.
There is plenty to do in the piazza once the sun goes down. The nightlife is active with

tourists mingling with natives, beggars, mimes and artists all milling around in the

crowded oval piazza. This active public space was built on an ancient circus, which was

not a place where trapeze artists and elephants performed. Rather it is a circular public

area where many streets come to a common intersection.

postscript to our post on the sewer zeppelins and artificial lakes of Rome.

Every weekend during the sweltering month of August, from 1652 until 1866, the drains

of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi were blocked so that the waters would overflow and

flood much of Piazza Navona, a sort of aqueous reincarnation of thenaumachiae, or

mock naval battles, that were once staged on the same site more than a thousand years

ago. Or perhaps this aberrant hydrology was an attempt to mimic the floodplains of the

real Quattro Fiumi. It could even be described as the temporary, theatrical reemergence

of the marshy landscape on which the Eternal City was built.

In any case, it was one of the most popular midsummer festivals in Rome, the “merriest

of them all,” according to the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Members of the

nobility and gentry came in droves in their carriages. Watched by gazers crowding the
shores of this artificial lake or looking out from the windows of the palaces

surrounding the piazza, princes and nobles would parade side by side with peasants

and farmers around and around the water's shallow periphery or crisscross across

deeper parts. It probably didn't take long until the water became just a dirty puddle,

but one could still churn up microgusts of cooling breezes. On the dry portions of the

piazza, entertainments were set up, as well as booths for refreshments.

This urban hydro-spectacle would go on all day, until sunset, sometimes even into the

night. Then the piazza was drained, and the water once again contained in its Baroque

basin.

Experiences:

Its an ocher coloured gem, unspoiled by the new buildings nor the traffic. Four

fountains, plenty of perimeter cafe seating, no car in sight, complete enclosure, a slight

slope north to south, not one tree, a lively ring of facades, and plenty of surrounding

pedestrian friendly lanes and alleys. Stone paved, perfect for mimes, sword swallowers

and artists to strut their stuff. Good late PM shade. Feels like a big room. (Tom Paine,

Wellesley MA) dodging street vendors selling strange blinking toys, slow-moving packs

of tourists, and the restaurateurs who can tell in an instant that I’m a foreigner—“Good

evening, Miss. Full Meal, fifteen euros”—No thanks.

Piazza Navona holds one of the finest examples of Bernini’s fountain work: the Fontana

dei Quattro Fiumi(Fountain of the Four Rivers), built in 1651 .

The four gods on the corners of the fountain represent the four major rivers of the

world known at the time as the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the River Plate.

Arranged around the central rocky mass supporting the almost-obligatoryobelisk are

four large sculptures executed by his students. One of them, the Ganges, was sculpted

by Claude Poussin who would later become a master under his own name.

The fountain is a tour de force with a sea monster, a lion, cacti, palm tree and a dozen

other pieces woven together around the central column. The funding was so large for

the piece that taxes were levied on bread, prompting outcries from Roman citizens both

poor and rich. But with the controversy now a part of history, visitors like us  can simply

enjoy it for its beauty and artistic merits.

The Fountain of the Moor, at the other end of Piazza Navona, features a Triton - one of

the many gods of the sea – riding a dolphin. From this vantage point, there is ample

opportunity for people watching, enjoying the warm Roman sunshine or planning your

next stop around the Piazza Navona and its environs.

As a newly minted Roman, I’ve already traversed Piazza Navona more times than I can

count.  My trips around the city are like small orbits around and through this piazza,

since most major sites,popular restaurants and nightlife spots are at most a fifteen-

minute walk. Many times, I rush past the piazza,

There are dozens of merchant stalls, interspersed among the many cafes and

restaurants. You could stop near one and have your portrait sketched by one of the
numerous artists dotting the piazza.  They may not be grandmasters, but some of them

are really talented.

The Fontana dei Calderai (Fountain of the Coppersmiths), later renamed the Fountain

of Neptune is also here. Decorated with sea figures, Neptune slaying an octopus, sea

horses, dolphins and Nerieds (sea nymphs) it carries Rome’s fountain-sea creature

theme to the ultimate peak. The fountain is made of the same Portasanta rose marble

used for St. Peter’s doorjambs.

ANOTHER:

The Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone is one of the grandest structures on the piazza.

According to religious traditions, it stands on the site of the beheading of St. Agnes, a

young virgin persecuted by rebuffed suitors. The church now houses her severed skull,

called theSacra Testa (holy head), in its sacristy. I recommend to all to check out the

interior of the Church, as well as its headlining (and somewhat baffling—go visit and

you’ll understand why) relic.

Of course, Piazza Navona’s centerpiece, Bernini’sFontana dei Quattro Fiume (Fountain

of the Four Rivers), never fails to dazzle visitors with its strange combination of styles—

faux ancient Egyptian obelisk and neoclassical sculpture—and characters—four

contorted behemoths plus some animals and an imagined armadillo. I can say that there

is nothing quite like standing besides the Fontana dei Quattro Fiume late at night, in

the rare moment when the Piazza is empty and silent, and watching the bright blue

reflections of water dancing across the bodies of the river gods.

A THEORY

 a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one

based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained:Darwin's theory of

evolution

 a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based: a theory of

education[mass noun] :music theory

 an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action: my theory

would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged

After walking through cramped, narrow streets in Rome’s center, Piazza Navona is a

revelation.  The visitor’s gaze is forced up from the cobblestones and out across the

grand piazza. Before them, a vast expanse of open space, lined with Baroque facades

and dotted with iconic fountains, pulsates with life at all hours of the day and night.  In

fact, since its creation, Piazza Navona has been a hub of spectacle. In ancient times, it

was a circus in the literal sense. These days, it’s a spectacle of Roman city life, of art, of

commerce, and of socializing.

SO WHAT MAKES IT SUCCESFUL?

1`.Access & Linkages

2. (Monumentality, Centrality and the Articulation of Places and Flows in the

Informational City)

3. The Localisation of Flows

4.Comfort & Image

5. Virtual Cities

6. Uses & Activities

7. VI. The New Urban Signification

8. The Dissociation between Space of Identity and Functional Space

9. ( the new urban signification)

Public space in the information society

Manuel Castells, 1994

[Inglés] [Castellano]

Published  in Ciutat real, ciutat ideal: significat i funció a l'espai urbà modern. Barcelona:

Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, 1998 (Urbanitats; 7) 

 
 

I. Spatial Change, Historical Change and Cultural Identity

The transformation of time and space is the material expression of historical structural

change. In this sense, the information society is no exception. The information

technology revolution, consolidated in the 1970s and disseminated throughout the

planet in every sphere of activity over the last two decades of the past millennium, has

involved and accompanied far-reaching changes in spatial processes and forms.

However, these changes do not confirm the prophecies of futurologists, or simplistic

extrapolations from the characteristics of technology. In particular, the prediction that

cities could disappear because of the spatial diffusion brought about by

telecommunications has been refuted by empirical observation.

The city is not disappearing and far from it. I insist on this point because of the media

impact of such books as the recent The Death of Distance. According to this ideology, it

is not only the death of distance we are faced with, but of everything with any kind of

spatial specificity because we are now inhabiting a computerised universe and are living

within an organisation of networks that are linked by telecommunication. This was also

essentially the idea of Marshall McLuhan, the concept of the global village, where all

culture is encompassed within a system of communication that goes beyond local

specificities, particularities, identities, and so on. It is verging on the idea of a world

government in which everything disappears for we are all brothers and sisters and, from

now on, cultures will melt together into some kind of undifferentiated universe. This is a

deep-rooted idea that has its present technological expression firmly entrenched in the
old rationalist tradition, both liberal and enlightenment (citizens of the world), and

Marxist (proletarians of the world). In other words, it is the idea of classes, and on the

basis of classes, a view of humanity as an undifferentiated mass. The essential idea of

rationalism, both liberal and Marxist, is to supersede cultures and therefore places. The

present technological instrument seems to enable the realisation of this prophecy as the

selfsame instrument that is at last able to free capitalism (and indeed it does) from its

institutional ties and the different forms of state control. However, cultures, places and

spaces, are much more resistant, and have much more density so are thus not so easily

abolished. Indeed, they are more and more organised. It can be demonstrated

empirically that people's experience is increasingly local. The mechanisms of political

and social control are also increasingly local. In the book that Jordi Borja and I have just

published, Local y global (Local and Global, Taurus, 1997), we emphasise this, stressing

that the global does not do away with the local but, on the contrary, creates the

possibility for a much more active, much more decisive role for what is local. In strictly

cultural terms the local, and places, are increasingly becoming the last ditches of

identity. With the general dissolving of identities in the instrumental world of the space

of flows (see my book, La sociedad red (The Network Society) Alianza Editorial, 1997),

the space of places is taking shape as an expression of identity, of what I am, of what I

experience, of what I know, and of how I organise my life around it. 

II. The Dissociation between Space of Identity and Functional Space

The public re-launching of working-class residential spaces in many parts of the world,

but very specifically in Barcelona, is contributing to this idea of consolidating the identity
of what is local, and the identity of cultural expression. Yet there is a problem, which is

that if we limit ourselves to this verification, which is the importance of the local, the

importance of place, the identity of places, and if besides we reinforce, as we should,

the expression of these identities through urban planning operations that highlight the

significance of residential spaces, including working-class areas, what can appear, and

what is appearing, is the danger of an increasing dissociation between the space of

instrumentality and the space of identity. On the one hand is the space of a global,

cosmopolitan culture and, on the other, the space of what is local as a space that is so

dominated that it essentially becomes the space of the neighbourhood's identity, of the

identity of a specific place and it therefore not only loses its connection with the

instrumental space, but also communication between each of the identities. If each

identity becomes specific and the bridges of connection go through an instrumentality

that is global and cut off from what is expressive, we will then have at once a world of

global instruments with an ahistorical cosmopolitan culture and a fragmentation into

local tribes. From this we may deduce the importance of two old issues of urban

planning: monumentality and centrality. Monumentality, with its capacity for emitting a

generalising symbolic message, establishes, or can establish, a symbolic bridge of

meaning between different localities and between the localities and the instruments of

power with which they must coexist, negotiate, interact and struggle. Struggling is a

relation. The danger today is not conflict (which is socially healthy and aesthetically

creative), but the separation between the local and the global, creating thus the

possibility of constructing global instruments that are disconnected from local societies.

With the significant dissociation of monumentality, re-edification of urban centrality is

being considered. Centrality, from the urban planning perspective, does not mean being

a single centre: it can be multinuclear. This then raises the idea that the city is not just a

few central symbolic elements, to which are added residential spaces that become

significant, but rather that centrality means the diffusion of this monumentality into

different centres that would articulate meaning and function in the territory as a whole. 

III. Monumentality, Centrality and the Articulation of Places and Flows in the

Informational City

So, what elements, what attempts of articulation are occurring between the space of

places and the space of flows as an attempt to create systems of communication? I

would say that there are two observable kinds of attempts, one that is more incipient

and more exotic, on the basis of the space of flows, while the other is more traditional,

more diversified, more complex, on the basis of the space of places.

Starting out from the space of flows, there are attempts being made to create a public

cyberspace. These efforts are much more developed than what people usually believe

and, in particular, they have enormous potential in terms of their future manifestations.

Now, in 1997, there are 2,000 virtual cities, where what we understand by "virtual

cities" (a somewhat grandiose term) is urban pages on the worldwide web, on internet,

more or less permanent urban pages. Great efforts are being made by thinkers and

analysts, including urban planners, in the face of the loss of public space and the decline

or urban culture, to look at cyberspace as a new form of public space in which people

can meet up again in the electronic agora. I refer, for example, to Michael Benedict, or

to the ideas of Howard Rheingold in The Virtual Community, where cyberspace is seen
as a new space of sociability. Then, on the one hand, we would have the instrumental

space of flows while, on the other, would be the almost undifferentiated space of

individual habitat with some places to go out to eat from time to time, while the space

of real sociability, beyond the dangers posed by the city, would be the electronic agora.

This could have more success than we think here in Barcelona because not all spaces

have the power and constitution of Barcelona. If we are thinking, for example, about the

mega-cities of Asia where there are small centres and then enormous constellations of

totally poor and run-down, densely-populated neighbourhoods, the idea that

reconstructing a virtual space instead of constructing physical spaces, apart from the

enormous interest this might have from the standpoint of the electronics industry, is

one that is sufficiently attractive for people who like to apply technological solutions to

social problems. 

IV. Virtual Cities

Let us look, in some detail, at two examples of virtual cities because I believe that this is

a matter that should not be taken lightly and it might, on the contrary, have the

interesting virtue of articulation with other processes. To be schematic, there are two

kinds of virtual cities. First we have those without physical existence or, in other words,

that do not correspond to a specific city but rather to the idea that the city is a

metaphor for acceding to different services on the global network of internet. These are,

in general, commercial services and, in this city of X, in such-and-such a cityscape, or

whatever, there is a bank or a shop, or a service that offers commercial products or, in

some cases, political propaganda. What I find interesting about these virtual cities is that
the graphics always or almost always show small cities or towns, and they even have an

almost childlike architecture like the kind of urban naïf we see in Walt Disney films.

The other virtual cities, the more important ones, in my view, are the real cities that

organise their virtual existence on the Web as a system offering information to their

citizens. Then there would be a third kind to which I shall refer in more detail below. The

second type includes the new network of European cities that are linked up in the on-

line project of the Eurocities network. At present, most are essentially administrative

databanks and information about services. In the case of Barcelona, it is an intelligent,

well-informed and efficient interactive service. These on-line pages also function as a

publicity catalogue in colour, with photos and texts that aim at attracting tourists and

investment, while also promoting the government team of the day. I believe it could be

a very interesting project in the near future but, for the moment, most the real cities

that go on to the Web do so in the form of advertising operations and services offering

information to citizens.

There are also more limited attempts but they are interesting to highlight, and these are

the real cities that construct a participative system of the virtual city. Rather than

speaking in general terms, let me give two examples for which we have some data and

that are among the most developed cases in Europe: the digital city of Amsterdam and

the Iperbole programme of Bologna. Both have been studied in some detail in the work

of Stephen Graham of the Centre for Urban Technology of the University of Newcastle,

so we have some material about them, in particular what I was able to obtain from my

own real visit to the virtual city of Amsterdam. Both were founded in 1994. The digital
city of Amsterdam is not under the auspices of the City Council but is financed by a

private, non-lucrative foundation and is organised as a city into thematic sections, each

with a square that appears physically, dealing with housing, municipal financing, local

culture, work and environment. In the centre of these thematic squares, there is

information about the related organisations, and around it are buildings, the houses

where people who are registered in this virtual city (35,000 in the case of Amsterdam)

can lodge their own information free of charge. Interaction is thereby structured

between the people of these buildings and the information offered by the organisations

in the square. Besides, there is a text programme called Metro, which enables direct

interaction between citizens who can even ―and they do― get married virtually, have

families, choose the virtual mayor of the city, talk about their problems and relate the

problems of the real city with those of the virtual city. Moreover, a special effort has

been made in Amsterdam to create public terminals through which people can enter

this virtual city, and organisations of socially-excluded groups have received special

training and programmes to that they can join in the interaction. In some cafes and

public places there are also computers that are especially designed for children. Public

space? Yes and no. It is a public space that is obviously biased in the construction of the

programme and although, as I insist, the NGOs have received help so that they can

connect, it must be noted that, of the 35,000 residents of the virtual city, 85% are males,

75% are university graduates, and 58% are under thirty years of age. Again, financing

problems have ensured that, now The Digital City of Amsterdam is a success, the

foundation is selling space in the virtual city for commercial and advertising purposes
and here, it is interesting to note, the problems of physical public spaces are reproduced

because when something works it is commercialised.

Again, there is another problem, a basic one for anyone who wants to develop the idea

of an electronic agora along the lines of the development of a real city and this is that,

although the text is Dutch, since it is on internet, anyone can enter, from any part of the

world. As happens with a real city. Well, yes and no. Not everyone takes a plane from

Jakarta to Amsterdam every day, of course, but it is true that the real city is also open to

any kind of visitor and the so-called floating population of the real city is one of the most

important issues for urban planners, but this is not global on-line access as can occur

with the virtual city. In fact, from the statistics we have available, 50% of the virtual city

users are not registered in the virtual city because it is necessary to provide an

Amsterdam address in order to register, but this is not required in order to enter

because there is no way to connect up entry. Besides, the local Chamber of Commerce

and the Amsterdam City Council are using this digital city as an international lure to

attract people to Amsterdam and are therefore sending out images on internet with the

result that the proportion of real non-residents is rising and it might, in fact, become a

global public space around a virtual Amsterdam, which is how it is tending at present.

Another example that might illustrate our analysis is Bologna's Iperbole programme,

which was also created in 1994 by the Bologna City Council. In this programme, in

principle, the information is something that issues from the City Council and the city's

civic and union organisations, with which the citizens can interact but without being

able to add their own information. It is a more asymmetrical system. It is divided into

three departments, each of which offers a wide range of services, and these
departments arise from the different kinds of organisations that are managed by each

one. There are thirty-three groups of subject areas with Usenet-type conversation

groups about them. Participation in Iperbole is free of charge and is funded by the City

Council in terms of training projects at neighbourhood level and also at the level of civic

organisations so that people can use it and, in this sense, Iperbole has managed to

achieve almost exclusively local participation. Almost 90% of the people who enter into

the Iperbole programme are local, largely because the problems it deals with are very

local ones, as the City Council and local organisations propose. By 1996 it seemed that,

once the programme was underway, advertising space was being rented out to small

local enterprises. However, a selection is made of these enterprises and not just anyone

can advertise, but only those companies that the City Council thinks should be helped in

the local sphere. The City Council also wanted to use the Iperbole system to organise

referendums that might give some indications about specific problems of municipal

administration but, for the moment, technical problems of organisation have prevented

it. The technical problems, it seems ―and this is not official information from the City

Council― consist in how to organise a referendum on a local issue when anybody from

any other city or any other part of the world can access the referendum and vote. This is

a complex problem that has not yet been resolved. I believe that it could be resolved

but, in the specific case of Bologna, it has not yet happened.

The problems raised, then, by virtual cities is that they are still very excluding, highly

commercialised, and many of them are networks of individuals who do the same as they

would do in their personal relations, but they do it in cyberspace, and the studies even
show that these networks of individuals tend to replace the urban life they once had

with life in this electronic agora.

Nonetheless, there are possibilities for articulation, a chance for localities in the space of

flows, so that, for example, virtual communities can be created where transit between

flows and places can happen. One example is San Francisco where there is an Iperbole-

type programme called Citysearch in which people can chat about different matters and,

on this basis, establish personal, physical interaction and also receive information about

the kinds of activities that they can engage in within the real city of San Francisco, etc.. It

functions, first, then as a channel for electronic conversation and then as a system for

connecting to the local services of which they can avail themselves.

However, I must stress that the efforts of connection in cyberspace are presently limited

to interactive networks of groups from a fairly high social level, or they are essentially

administrative spaces, without either of the two being able to re-create public spaces,

neither in the sense in which we know them historically speaking nor, as I tried to point

out above, as spaces of integration, and spaces where integration enables the creation

of social synergy. 

V. The Localisation of Flows

Is it possible to reconstruct meaning and establish bridges between the space of flows

and the space of places, and from the places? Here we have a whole series of attempts

where the design of architecture and urban design are playing an evermore basic role in
an overall society in which, and I insist on this, people and societies resist disappearing

into the global non-differentiation of the space of flows.

There are several ways to create this new monumentality and this new centrality. The

first and simplest would be symbolic uses for the new instrumentalities of culturally

identifiable places that have historic and cultural sense. To put it clearly, the Casa de la

Caritat in Barcelona is a good example. It represents the project of using buildings

whose cultural value, identifying value and historic value, is maintained, reinforced and

highlighted in order to articulate these values with an instrumentality that is open to

information flows or, in different cases, to other types of flow. Banks, as we know, are

trying to absorb historic buildings and give them instrumentality. This might be criticised

from another point of view ―although I don't criticise it― but there is an effort to

connect what was the physical identity of a place to a projection of the new

instrumentality. Public institutions and, in particular, the branches of the administration

in the autonomous regions all over Spain, are reusing a good part of their artistic and

architectural heritage for their offices and headquarters. I do not know if they could use

them for other purposes but at least there is some connection of historic identity,

physical culture and the new instrumentality. There is another example that might

appear ridiculous, but it seems significant to me, and this is what McDonald's does.

McDonald's, from a superficial standpoint, has become the symbol of global culture, of

the massacre of cultural forms, always with its yellow born-in-the-USA arches. But what

McDonalds is doing all over Europe is to reuse culturally significant buildings in each city.

Wherever they can engage in symbolic marketing of something ―but not in all cases

because there are too many McDonalds― they do so. They also do it in Japan, of course.
Then, the attempt at a cultural leap is what, very primitively, is considered in connection

with symbolic uses that people can identify with new instrumental uses. But this is too

specific. The problem, as I suggested above, is how to extend the public sphere of

meaning. 

VI. The New Urban Signification

I shall begin with what is not working. What is not working is the attempt at bringing the

new instrumental spaces under control by trying to give them new symbolic meaning

through privatisation of public uses. To be precise, examples inBarcelona are the L'illa

shopping mall and the Nova Icària Centre. In other words, this is the idea of creating

spaces that reproduce the functions of urban centrality, spaces that aim to reconstruct,

and they do reconstruct, sometimes quite successfully, the density of urban life, but

they privatise it. And in privatising, they definitively introduce bias into the uses of the

space and the perception of the space because it is dominated by the commercial

function. There is nothing wrong with the commercial function, which is as legitimate as

any other in society. However, the issue at hand is symbolic structuring when there is

excessive predominance of this function.

More excessive cases appear with the attempt to introduce into discrete spaces the

logic of the space of flows. In the space of flows, just like extraterrestrial beings, shops

like Planet Hollywood are organising landing systems. What is Planet Hollywood? It

means bringing Hollywood to any part of the world and installing it in a space where you

suddenly enter into the culture of Hollywood. Or, for those who have rather more

money and ambitions, there are places like Fashion Café, which conveys the idea that if
you go there some day you might meet up with the co-proprietor, Claudia Schiffer, and

have a coffee with her.

From a more creative standpoint, we can see the attempt to go beyond privatisation

and to try to achieve articulation between flows and places. In brief, there are different

types of initiatives. This articulation between flows and places can occur when either

flows or places are dominant. When flows are dominant, we find, first of all, attempts to

articulate a new monumentality of the instrumental by way of technological design. One

example is the work of the engineer-architect Calatrava. The bridges of Calatrava, the

communications tower of Calatrava, etc., and the idea that what is technologically

advanced, what is the instrument of connection, let's say a bridge (if there was a river)

could be significant and monumental, while also instrumental. The articulation of

significance and instrumentality, places and flows, is at the basis of a huge effort in

architecture and urban planning with regard to places of interchange of flows: airports,

stations, highways. It is what I call the Changi model after the Singapore airport, which is

really a city that has been totally designed from within to make the wait very agreeable.

In a place and space where people are edgy because they find themselves suspended in

the space of flows, a cosy space has been constructed, which includes piano concerts of

classical music in the vestibule and all kinds of other activities. Although Changi is highly

commercialised, it is designed to make you feel you are in your living room at home. A

much more uncompromising model, but one that I think is a lot more interesting from

the design point of view, is the Barcelona airport, where we have the idea of dealing

with a space of interchange by bestowing significance on it, along with commercial

elements to which is added an aesthetic dimension of the relation between culture and
instrumentality. Then there is what Moneo has done with the AVE station in Madrid,

which is a brilliant genuflection to this, though I don't know whether it has been noticed.

The AVE station is in fact two stations, the old Atocha Station that, with a wonderful

rehabilitated design with the trees and birds of the surroundings, is a park and not a

station. Then, next to that is the crummy thing that is the new station for the AVE that

goes between Madrid and Seville, and that is all. Obviously, then, the idea, or the

oblique reference, is that the former could not be a station but a park, while this AVE

("bird" in Spanish) is there fortuitously because somebody got the bright idea of having

an AVE that goes from Madrid to Seville. Another significant example is Koolhaus's

design for the transport modal interchange system in Lille. The treatment given to the

centrality of the Gran Palais and to the organisation around the modal interchange

points for European transport once again combines instrumentality, expression and a

strong cultural component. To sum up, the attempt to turn crowded places of transit

into public spaces and not just places of fast connection is an idea that at least has the

strength of trying to integrate what is expressive into what is functional. I reiterate,

however, that the space of flows is still predominant.

As for the attempts to articulate spaces when places are predominant, we have, on the

one hand, an idea of prolonging what is historic, or the idea of maintaining and

developing public places, as we see happening in Barcelona. The Rambla continues to be

a historic place. In a book written by one of the great American urban planners, Alan

Jakobs, and published by MIT last year, we have the great cities with all the major

streets of the world, and he designates the best and second-best streets in the world.

The best, for him, is the Rambla, followed by the Passeig de Gràcia, both of them in
Barcelona. This may be a qualitative analysis, but it is also an authoritative opinion.

Nonetheless, the idea of prolonging what is historic, as might be the case of the Piazza

Navona in Rome, is one that conserves the space of places but is unable to organise the

counter-offensive in the space of flows. To clarify this point, the Rambla only becomes a

flow when Barça wins a match or, in other words, it vibrates then as a media event and

it is there that it articulates to enter into another space beyond the place itself.

Otherwise it continues to be a very local space, very much Barcelona and its tourists. So

the idea of historical prolongation and the endurance of highly significant places, while

it permits the survival of local cultures and identities, does not organise the counter-

attack of significance in the space of flows. What is difficult, then, is to articulate

physical monumentality, which has memory, with information flows as activities, and

with spaces of urban life as an element of articulation between memory and activity.

In my view, this is the frontier between urban planning and architecture in the

informational city. It is the idea of connecting activity with memory, of connecting flows

with places. Are things being done in this sense? Well, yes. I think that here, the idea of

museum activity that has existed still has some value and that, in part, the connection

comes in here, though it is limited to cultural elements and some activities. The model

of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, for example, (even though I find the design quite

horrible), but let's say the cultural model and its relation with the city, its revivifying of

the neighbourhood of Les Halles, etcetera, does work. However, what is sometimes

called the French model has not always worked. For example, the Gare d'Orsay is a

catastrophe as an element of revitalisation in its urban setting and La Villette is

somewhere between the two models. However, the idea of a powerful stimulus of flows
of activities, of all sorts of information initiatives, these flows being tied to cultural

expressiveness and integrated into an urban space that is being reactivated if not

directly through these activities then at least because of the presence of the project, is a

truly interesting phenomenon.

There are similar elements in the United States. I shall only cite one case so as not to

exceed my time. This is the effort that was made in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, to

articulate collective memory by rehabilitating buildings and so on, along with cultural

expressions through the interplay of images generated from the experience of California

itself. California, too, has its culture and history, a history of only fifty years, but a very

intense one, so intense that it is part of our everyday imaginary, and not just Hollywood,

but surf, skateboards, video-clips, etc.. All of this forms the Californian identity and

culture, just as the Baroque might have represented Italian culture and identity in other

centuries. Santa Monica, then, has organized urban life with a multitude of oblique

references in its public spaces to motifs pertaining to Hollywood, surf, skateboarding

and so on, and these references articulate this urban life.

The set of activities carried out here in the Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de

Barcelona, in the Casa de Caritat building, next to the Contemporary Art Museum, in the

Raval neighbourhood, near the Rambla, in Barcelona, Catalonia … all these connections

are the type of links that can really begin to construct bridges. The problem with this

kind of connection is that the initiatives are still too limited to relatively elite cultural

activities, but the idea of connecting information flows with historical significance, and

this being integrated into urban space, and this idea being generalised to other
neighbourhoods, to other sorts of activities and cultural expression, seems to be one of

the ways to go about reconstructing an articulation of places and flows.

Experimenting thus with a new information-based design of what is material and a new

material-based design of what pertains to information seems to be the new frontier of

urban planning. How to make a city of the information city. In other words, a producer

of culture on the basis of the interaction between work, everyday life and the imaginary.

It is the articulation between the new capacity to create and the renewed art of

dreaming in time and space.

ACCESS

 1GOOD ACCESS

LINKAGES & FLOW

2GREAT LINKAGES, FAIRLY ACCEPTABLE FLOW LOCALISATION OF FLOW

The articulation of significance and instrumentality, places and flows, is at the basis of a

huge effort in architecture and urban planning with regard to places of interchange of

flows: airports, stations, highways. It is what I call the Changi model after the Singapore

airport, which is really a city that has been totally designed from within to make the wait

very agreeable. In a place and space where people are edgy because they find

themselves suspended in the space of flows, a cosy space has been constructed, which

includes piano concerts of classical music in the vestibule and all kinds of other
activities. Although Changi is highly commercialised, it is designed to make you feel you

are in your living room at home.

USES AND SPACE

3EXISTING FUNCTIONAL SPACES FOR PUBLIC ( THERE ARE ACTIVITIES THAT PEOPLE CAN

EASILY, AND FREELY ENGAGED IN) thomas’s idea of wifi.

SENCE OF BELONGING

4COMFORT/safety.

REPUTATION AND IMAGE

5POSITVE REPUTATION OR A GOOD IMAGE

-legends on trevi: n 19 B.C. Marco Vespasiano Agrippa decides to construct a

long canal to feed the springs he developed near the Pantheon.The legend states

that soldiers were sent to research the water springs closest to Rome, who, while

on assignment, met a young girl that led them to the pure springs. It is from

this legend that the water is gets its name the "Virgin Water".

 During antiquity, a glass of the fresh, thirst quenching water from the Trevi

Fountain was said to ensure good fortune and a fast return to Rome.Over the

course of time, this practice was replaced with the tossing of a coin in the

fountain. The precise tradition calls for one to throw the coin over one's left

shoulder while standing with one's back to the Trevi Fountain.

 

 The Trevi Fountain today, contains a wide collection of international coins tossed

by those travellers wishing to return to this distinctly romantic and wonderful

place in Rome.There is second romantic ritual associated with the Trevi Fountain.

This legend pertains to the miniature fountain of the left side, known as "the

small fountain of lovers". According to the legend, couples that drink from

the mini fountain will forever be faithful to their partner.

http://www.travelermania.com/europe/trevi-fountain-in-rome/

Legends on piazza navona

SIGNIFICANCE

-HISTORICALLY

-URBAN

6THERE IS AN EXISITNG SIGNIFICANCE ABOUT THE PLACE/ FAME DUE TO HISTORY

7NEW URBAN SIGNIFICANCE

Definitions from Oxford dictionary

ACCESS:
 1 [mass noun] (often access to) the means or opportunity to approach or enter a
place:the staircase gives access to the top floorwheelchair access

LINKAGES:

 the action of linking or the state of being linked.

 [count noun] a system of links:a complex linkage of nerves

FLOW:

2 [with adverbial of direction] go from one place to another in a steady stream, typically

in large numbers:people flowed into the huge courtyard

SPACES:
 1 a continuous area or expanse which is free , available, or unoccupied:a table
took up much of the space[count noun] :we shall all be living together in a small spacehe
reversed out of the parking space
 [count noun] an area of land which is not occupied by buildings:she had a love of
open spaces

REPUTATION

 the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something:his
reputation was tarnished by allegations of bribery
 a widespread belief that someone or something has a particular
characteristic:his knowledge of his subject earned him a reputation as an expert

IMAGE
 1 a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art.
 2 the general impression that a person, organization, or product presents to the
public:she strives to project an image of youth

SIGNIFICANCE

 1 the quality of being worthy of attention; importance:adolescent education was

felt to be a social issue of some significance
 2 (also statistical significance) the extent to which a result deviates from that
expected to arise simply from random variation or errors in sampling.