Change in Use and Development of Public Squares Considering Daily Temporalities.

Abstract

Cities are constantly changing. Spatial-temporal studies are essential to understanding these changes. Notions of urban temporalities introduced in these studies reveal changes in the mobility and movement of diverse groups of users in public spaces and particularly in public squares. What are the concrete changes of uses and conflicts in public squares? What are the development approaches that consider the changes of uses and conflicts? This article explores these questions using the case of the Emir Abd El Kader Square that is a central square in Algiers. A survey was conducted in the last two weeks of May 2016, considering working and weekend days. It required the observation of users and uses in the square at different times, and questionnaires distributed among users and urban planners. This study identifies use patterns in this public square as they occur during different times of the day and week and discusses the proposed re-development and improvement of the square. The results highlight the impacts of the daily temporalities and the influence of users in changing the distribution of uses and the development of the square.