THE DUALITY OF CONTEMPORARY URBAN PUBLIC SPACE

The complexity of the contemporary city points to public space as a place in which to perceive both aesthetic and social experiences. On the one hand, urban aesthetics uses resources such as the urban landscape and public art in order to stimulate the perception of beauty in the city. On the other, urban space requires social activity to establish its public status. This social variable, in its perceptive as well as participatory as-pects, presents relationships with aesthetic factors through the interaction between physical environment and the society that inhabits it. A dual interpretation of public space as an aesthetic object and as a social phenomenon contributes to consolidate the notions of place and identity in the city.