Public space in the socialist city: between abundance and vagueness.

Socialist cities, which emerged from the social revolutions and the urban reconstruction after World War II, were planned and developed with formal variety and abundance of public spaces. New cities were structured around the great square or the great central empty space, which was the representative public space of the new political power. These spaces, which were designed to gather multitudes in special days, remained empty most of the time. Indeed, besides some spaces linked to historical centres, most of them persist nowadays without continuous and defined public use. The residential macrostructure – generally situated in the first or second urban belt around the historic centre – had also its focus on the large public space, reflecting the architectural and urbanist principles of the modernist movement. However, appropriation by society of theses spaces was always deficient, leaving extended areas with reduced and occasional use. This paper intends to systematize through several significant examples the main formal characteristics of public space in the socialist city, its localization and importance in the urban fabric, so as the intended uses. Inevitably, public space was part of the ideological discourse about the creation of an ideal environment for the new society; thus, the main ideological connotations inscribed in the configuration of public spaces will be explained. The reflection about the inherited character and the evolution of public spaces in the post-socialist era will serve to conclude the text