Changing Perceptions and Uses of “Companion Animal” Public and Pseudo-Public Spaces in Cities during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Beijing

Introduction. When selecting urbanized locations for parks and squares as centers of improvement and comfort of the urban environment, it is necessary to involve not only public authorities, but also activists. The purpose of the study is to build an algorithm for the development of public spaces in large cities, taking into account the schemes of interaction between state, municipal and business entities and activists. Materials and Methods. The study was based on publications by Russian and foreign scientists, regulatory documents on the research problem. The Rostov Region was the research subject, as well as the center of the region, the city of Rostov-on-Don with a population of over one million. The authors have analyzed the results of sociological surveys and rating voting on the development of public spaces in cities. The use of analytical methods and research techniques (analysis, generalization, induction and deduction, systems approach) made it possible to substantiate the authors’ point of view and the algorithm for the development of public spaces in large cities. Results. The scientific knowledge on the issues of harmonizing the interests of the population of large cities, municipal authorities, and business entities has been systematized in terms of improving urban planning, social and environmental strategies for the development of the region, based on information resources of the main indicators of the state of the environment and the investment attractiveness of the Rostov Region. Practical recommendations have been formulated for regional public authorities to ensure effective use of public spaces in large cities in the context urbanization. Discussion and Conclusion. Based on the study, the authors have proposed an algorithm for the development of public spaces in cities, which will combine the efforts of public authorities, business entities and the population in creating a comfortable urban environment in large cities. The materials of the article will be useful for city managers and heads of regions, as well as for specialists involved in the landscaping of public spaces.

Public space has critical importance for the city and society because it forms a sense of community. The debate on the end of public space, which is ongoing as the privatization in the city rises, moves on to a new phase with the Covid-19 outbreak. Since the perception of public spaces will be a determinant factor in the future of the city, the question arises: How the perception and usage of the public, virtual public and pseudo-public spaces (particularly shopping malls) have been affected by the recent Covid-19 pandemic? The aim of this study is to examine the changing perception and usage of public and pseudo-public spaces during the Covid-19 outbreak in Istanbul, Turkey. Within this scope, an online survey was conducted with 337 participants living in Istanbul between the dates of 1–5 June 2020. With this survey, the change in perceptions and usage of these spaces based on personal, residential and district characteristics were investigated. The findings of the study revealed statistically significant differences between the perceptions and usage of public spaces and pseudo-public spaces before and after the Covid-19 outbreak in terms of personal, residential and district characteristics. According to survey results, there would be a significant decrease in the frequency of possible visits to public places. The outbreak reduces interest in virtual spaces as a leisure activity, but it also increases the interest in virtual spaces as a shopping and meeting/chat platform. In addition, it was determined that the demand for shopping centres and virtual platforms as both before-after-the-outbreak leisure activities decreased significantly as the amount of green space per capita increases. Besides, the diminishing reputations of pseudo-public spaces and the increasing importance of virtual public spaces may be observed from the survey results. The longer the outbreak, the greater its impact on the design and planning of public spaces and pseudo-public spaces. Rather than planning huge and crowded spaces such as big squares and huge malls, there is likely a shift toward planning a large number of small-scale public spaces within walking distance.

Central public spaces in cities have always played an important role in urban experience, and continue to have a city-wide significance, often described as the meeting spaces of cultures, politics, social and individual trajectories. Peripheral and/or neighbourhood public spaces, where the everyday life of citizens unfolds, rarely enjoy any of this significance and may not receive the attention needed from the main stakeholders involved. Many researchers have highlighted the significance of these public spaces in cities, pointing out that the patterns of everyday life in residential neighbourhoods – whether it is the chance encounters in the local market or conversations in the local square– are the essential material of society and may well have integrative social functions, of an individual or collective initiative. This paper aims at an empirical contribution to a better understanding of the synthesizing mechanisms, which shape public spaces in cities’ neighbourhoods, by addressing the variety of factors involved and their relations and by highlighting the need for manifold perspectives on the localized ‘meaning’ of places, constructed, and shaped by local practices and behaviours. Drawing on the theoretical framework of relational theories, the paper sets out to explore the links between the physical sphere and the social sphere of three different residential public spaces in the city of Limassol, critically exploring the ways in which the boundaries of public space are challenged and negotiated. Both spatial analysis and social sciences methods are employed to map and unveil the essential role residential public spaces play, in bringing together what society divides in contemporary, multicultural cities, where multiplicities of identities, languages, religions and cultures may naturally give rise to tensions and even hostilities. The potential for interaction and meetings between different people backgrounds in the public realm is shown to be a crucial prerequisite for shaping encounters during their everyday life, encouraging tolerance and a feeling of belonging.

Public spaces are an important part of cities as they contribute to improvements in liveability, environmental quality and sustainability. Despite these conditions of public spaces in cities in developing countries like India, are far from desirable in terms of quantity as well as quality. Though considerable research has been done on successful public open spaces to identify quality attributes/criteria and their evaluation in the context of developed countries, much of this has been primarily aimed at providing design guidelines/solutions. Besides, the role of proper management in ensuring quality and overall success of public spaces has also been assessed. However, not much research has been done in this regard in Indian context, where there is a considerable difference between the norms and provision of public spaces; the usage of public spaces and their quality from those in developed/rich countries This demands an in-depth understanding of the problems and issues surrounding public spaces, the criteria for quality in public spaces, and development of an evaluation framework, so that appropriate management strategies can be framed for their improvement. In view of the above, the study investigates public spaces in the context of three Indian cities and identifies the quality attributes/criteria based on a survey of users’ opinion and observational studies of selected public spaces. Further, a framework for the evaluation of the quality of public spaces employing the Public Space Quality Index (PSQI), has been developed and applied in selected public spaces. Using the above methodology, public spaces in a city with different performance levels, and factors responsible for the same can be identified, which can then become the basis for formulating appropriate management strategies for their improvement and comparing performances of public spaces in specific areas of a city/different cities to encourage competitiveness among cities to improve the quality of their public realm.

When designing public spaces in large cities, a number of functional, communication, compositional, infrastructural, environmental and compositional factors should be taken into account, most of which relate to water elements. The appropriate location and form of water elements significantly affect the attractiveness and strengthening of the identity of places in cities. Fountains, artificial and natural urbanized watercourses, artistic installations and sculptures, as well as nature-based solutions that utilize water designed in public spaces significantly increase the social and aesthetic value of public spaces. The main aim of the presented research is to present a spectrum of solutions for water elements in public spaces of cities. The summary part describes guidelines and recommendations regarding the principles of designing the locations of fountains, watercourses and artistic objects that utilize water in public spaces in cities.

With the emergence of the first settlements, people needed areas that would serve as a place for social activities. The gradual growth of these settlements led to an increase in the importance of these areas, with specialized areas for cultural buildings or trade. Over time, the urban structure became more complex, but streets and squares always remained the main formative elements. Technological development made changes in the development of cities and contrasted new concepts with the traditions of the past, subordinating design activities to the needs of modern transportation, technical, environmental and economic feasibility. Over a long period of time, the open public space of cities and its understanding have been changing in the perception of architects, and indeed the people for whom these spaces are intended. The worldview, functions, and interrelationships of individual components of the architectural environment have been transformed, and the understanding of the goals of space has also changed, which means that we should strive for such spaces. The article reviews, summarizes and systematizes the main historical periods of formation and their impact on the modern development of open public spaces in cities. The common features and characteristic features of the formation of open public spaces in cities at each of the main historical stages are identified. The importance of taking into account the relationship between human social needs and physical space is shown. The relationship between the formation of public spaces in Ukrainian cities and the main historical stages is presented. The analysis of the main historical periods made it possible to trace the attitude of people to the open public space of cities at different times, as well as to identify common and distinctive features, constant features and elements. It was found that the need for open public spaces was present at all historical stages, but their functional content changed. It can be traced that European architecture, the only difference is that the development of urban planning in Ukraine, similar to the European periods, occurred with a certain delay.

City public spaces act as a holistic concept that cannot be dismembered and is a systemic structure that exists in the flow of time and carries traces of history, politics, culture, economic development and technological progress. In general, this structure is stable, but always changing in detail, and its growth and shape are only partially under control. This process of city formation has no final result, it is absolutely continuous. Given the constant development of open public space and its complex multifaceted structure, there is a need to derive general principles of its formation and development. This determines the relevance of the issue under study in this article. City public spaces - all undeveloped space surrounding the city; dismembered separate built-up areas; space that is part of a single building massif. Urban open spaces are diverse - they differ in size, configuration, ratio of natural and artificial components, type of functions, and role in shaping the city's image. Existing theoretical studies in this area provide an understanding of the importance of formulating general principles for the formation of open public spaces in cities for their further organization. Thus, the article summarizes the general principles of their development - the principle of "multifunctionality", the principle of "inclusiveness", the principle of "comfort", the principle of "hierarchy", the principle of "contextuality", the principle of "public openness". The relevance of using these principles for the organization of open public spaces in cities is shown, and recommendations for improving the quality of these spaces are provided. The influence of the above principles on the characteristics and properties of open public spaces of cities on their physical, functional and social content is revealed.

Public spaces ensure the functional operation and resource sharing in all cities. Streets, squares, and parks afford cultural, socio-economic, and ecological activities benefitting society. However, technology and sharing economies are changing the use of urban spaces. Planners and designers must, therefore, consider the evolution of sharing and other technologies that continue to alter the formation of space in growing medium-sized cities. Public space in a city is a spectrum from the streets to the privacy within homes, and this transect is now being blurred by sharing technology and practices. This paper examines the impact that new technologies and sharing economies have on the way public spaces are generated and used, and what opportunities exist to mitigate negative changes using a human-centered focus and ecological wisdom.

The purpose of the article is to systematize the experience of European cities in creating public spaces capable of overcoming social exclusion and ensuring sustainable urban development. The scientific novelty is to substantiate the conceptual approach to the management of the process of creating public spaces in cities in the context of achieving sustainable urban development by overcoming social exclusion. The results of the research show that the creation of public spaces requires attention to the factors influencing the possibilities of overcoming social exclusion (economic, social, institutional). The analysis of the experience of five European cities (Varna, Bulgaria; Viterbo, Italy; Getxo, Spain; Copenhagen, Denmark; Malmo, Sweden) allowed highlighting the features and current trends in the creation of public space in cities. The main provisions of the approach to the management of public spaces in cities by identifying and systematizing: 1) the functions of public spaces: communication, recreational, political, territorial identification, integrating and aesthetic; 2) features of public spaces: openness and accessibility (convenience and ability to use the space for all regardless of age, race, health, affluence, etc.), safety and comfort (physical and psychological comfort, a sense of security in a comfortable and attractive space to use), interaction (the ability to establish contacts and cooperation in heterogeneous groups of users of the space); 3) forms (transformation of existing built-up areas, development of new territories) and tools (organizational and managerial, technical and technological, financial and economic) for creating public spaces. As a result, the study provided an opportunity to develop a mechanism for creating public spaces in the city. Successful implementation of the experience of European cities in Ukraine requires studying the needs of residents and guests of the city, researching existing analogues, identifying the potential of the city to create a public space of a certain type, taking into account risks, understanding the purpose of public space and determining the reasonable cost of projects.

A study of the experience of developing open public spaces in cities has made it possible to identify common features of their functional and spatial organization. The organization of any open public space in cities is based on specific principles by which it is formed: general principles, as well as special principles. The theoretical and practical experience of organizing open public spaces in cities is analyzed, on the basis of which the common features of their functional and spatial organization are derived. The importance of forming an open public space of cities is shown by deriving specific principles of its organization. The principle of "functional diversity" is to fill open public urban space with functions that can interest and satisfy the social needs of as many different groups of people as possible, regardless of their status, condition, or age. The principle of "functional diversity" is considered in detail, and the techniques that reveal it are identified. The author lists which of the general and special principles of organization of open public spaces in cities can be identified using the techniques discussed in the article. On the example of the project implemented by the author, recommendations are given for the organization of open public spaces in cities based on techniques that reveal the principle of "functional diversity". The relevance of the issue of deriving specific principles for the organization of open public spaces in cities (in particular, the principle of "functional diversity" and the techniques that reveal it) is due to the need for methodological and practical recommendations on the physical and functional content of various types of open public spaces in cities for their activation, attraction of people and comfortable stay in them, taking into account the world experience of their functional and spatial organization.

This article discusses segregation in public space in southern European cities. As well as questioning the appropriateness of associating the concept of segregation with public space, it considers the possibilities and limits of using ‘southern’ and postcolonial urban theory in order to analyze cities in southern Europe. Drawing on long-standing research in Naples, the article reflects upon how two issues of global significance – migration and cultural heritage – have been implicated in the reordering of public spaces in the city’s historic centre. Besides accounting for the nuanced nature of spatial segregation in the city, the article argues that the notion of ‘ordinary’ is a more useful point of departure than ‘southern’, because it alerts us to the different exclusionary dynamics that exist both between and within cities in southern Europe.

North African cities have been undergoing major transformation over the past two decades following protracted instability, civic uprising, and conflicts, changing their perception from havens to territories of displacements with social, psychological, and physical problems. Historic public spaces in those cities, in particular, form a critical part of urban environments as they have the identity, livelihoods and cross-community engagement in a healthy and fulfilling urban fabric and culture. Whilst there have been several studies on the characteristics of open spaces in urban environments, there is very limited work on the changing perceptions, use and engagement of public spaces in historic cities especially in the post-Arab Spring and its relative instability. This study aims to deploy investigative and creative methods to map, analyse and navigate through the transformation in the perceptions of historic public spaces in Post-Conflict Libya and its divided cities. It will study the users' (locals and visitors) attitudes, movements, and reflections on how those spaces have changed over time. visitors' behaviour in open historical public spaces in Tripoli, Libya. The study explores the relationships between the characteristics of historical public spaces, physical activity, and psychological behaviour. The paper argues that safety and security in public spaces are critical and inherent qualities that inform much of the users’ attitudes in historic cities, which has continued to be the case in post-conflict Tripoli.

The demise of public space in cities across the Global North has received considerable scrutiny from urban scholars in recent years, with accounts of the loss, privatisation and increased regulation of public space prevalent within the academic literature. This paper seeks to complicate these dominant narratives of public space transformation by exploring the complexities of existing public spaces and the emergence of new spaces of publicness in the city. It uses a case study of community gardening in mundane and everyday neighbourhood spaces to provide a more nuanced and progressive reading of the relations between publicness and space in the city. Drawing on empirical materials from recent research on community gardening projects in 15 cities in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, the paper highlights how community gardening is creating new environments of publicness across public, private and in-between spaces that complicate both the end of public space discourse and conventional understandings of public space within urban studies.

In the face of the process of urbanization, population growth, increasing population needs and modern lifestyle changes, infrastructure development in urban centers around the world is also growing rapidly. Developments of urban space are some of which are not well coordinated and have left traces of waste space or interstitial space in the urban context, many researchers, and figures in the field of urbanization argue that this uncoordinated waste space leaves a variety of detrimental impacts on the city and community in the city. As a result, many researchers, and figures from various fields, especially in the field of urban design, have contributed knowledge to various solutions and opportunities to take advantage of this interstitial space. Studies have found that in recent times various approaches have been taken to utilize this interstitial space by performing various intervention strategies which each have a different impact on the quality of success of activating this space. This paper examines the concept of interstitial space that exists with the process of urbanization, the quality of public space in the city based on theoretical development by previous researchers and examines real case studies empirically in the approach of developing interstitial space towards space that benefits the city and society in it. A comprehensive empirical examination conducted through several case studies analyzed and compared based on figure theory regarding the quality of urban public space in major city with high density.

The new mobility infrastructures that face contemporary accessibility problems are potential elements of urban development and of improvement of public space in the city. This fact is verified to the extent that its design is integrated into the geography, history and particular dynamics of an urban environment and acquires particular relevance in the field of intermediate cities. Under this hypothesis, we developed a Research and Project Workshop on intermediate cities in Chile, whose results constitute the central body of this paper. Based on the territorial analysis and the formulation of projects for La Serena, Iquique, Alto Hospicio, Valdivia, Osorno, Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, local solutions to global urban problems are discussed. The work is framed within the parameters of action research, emphasizing the exploratory nature of research and explicitly addressing the dimension of knowledge that arises from the project.