Semi-public urban spaces: evolution and appropriate design process criteria

Abstract

The paper analyzes the main regulatory experiments for Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) in North America and Asia, comparing requirements for implementation and outcomes. It also underlines the need to make these spaces representative of the social and environmental complexity of a public place, presenting the original proposal to include in the exchange conditions regulations that guarantee ecosystem services equivalent to the loss for the community due to the bonus granted. The reflection leads to three main aspects for the edition of updated regulations: the construction of integrated networks of spaces, the consideration of the urban ecosystem and the meta-design of thematic cultural guidelines.