A theory of Good Form of Public Space» A Critical Review of the Criteria for the Formation of Efficient Public Space

 Problem statement: 

Regardless of the consensus about the necessity of efficient public spaces to improve various dimensions of life in the city, there is no agreement in terms of the criteria for the formation of efficient public spaces as an ever-evolving concept. It seems that some of the listed criteria, according to philosophical partialism, are not in line with the evolution of this concept from an urban space based on the opposition of mass and emptiness to an ideal space for the realization of democracy, the flourishing of social life, and a processual and relational existence. This issue clarifies the need to revise the normative definitions of “good form of public space” by adopting a holistic perspective that includes the human-meaning dimensions of the space and the effect of other agencies such as the characteristics of the context and power institutions.

The purpose of the current research is to evaluate the existing theories about “efficient public space” and its relationship with the process of the semantic and functional evolution of space in the public domain of the city. While providing a general picture of the development process of the interdisciplinary concept of “public space”, this study attempts to present the knowledge gap in the previous theoretical literature, and provide a more appropriate approach, to the possibility of progress and development of theory in this field.

This study used an integrative approach to combine and critique the previous views and lay the groundwork for the re-conceptualization of “space in the public sphere of the city.” The data was collected using the library method based on the conceptual structure of the review and analyzed using the methods of critical analysis and conceptual classification.

Normative-prescriptive definitions of efficient public space are not in sync with the evolution process of the content-descriptive definition of public space. As a result of the incorrect epistemological orientation to the concept of space, partial criteria only consider one of the physical and semantic aspects of space or the algebraic sum of the two and do not provide a comprehensive picture of the multi-dialectical and disputed concept of space in the public domain of the city. In such a way that, despite the new forms of interwoven communication between man and the city under the concepts of “public space” and “public urban process”, we witness a kind of historical regression to the concepts of “urban space” or a selected representation and image of the concepts of “public space” and “public space.” The definition of the good form of the public space, according to the continuously evolving and multi-factorial nature of the space, should go beyond the instructions about shaping the space and rely on a holistic approach and formulating a set of flexible and paradigmatic holistic, multi-dimensional, multi-scale, and multi-dimensional equations and dynamic processes. It includes the formation of public space.