From Liberalism to Experimentation: Reconstructing the Dimensions of Public Space

This paper describes how particular normative dimensions have become embedded in public space. It identifies four periods of urban history, starting with that the liberal city which introduces a heterogeneous set and democratic values. The sanitary nineteenth century came to depict space as system flows needed managed. twentieth rational endorsed functionality efficiency key values, manifested modernist architecture neo-liberal policies. Recently experimental emerged, digital technologies give rise ‘smart’ systems, but also new forms civic engagement. is argued needs accommodate developed preceding historical periods, necessitates conflicts between these need subjected trade-off processes.