URBAN PUBLIC SPACES IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

Public spaces are the living room of the city – the place where people come together to enjoy the city and each other. Most people have a need and desire to maintain links with the rest of the world, and public space is able to bridge that link. They provide avenue for movement, a means of communication, and a common ground for enjoyment and relaxation. With introduction of internet in the urban public spaces, the social structure and activities of urban public spaces has changed in the past decade. The rapid and accelerating move towards the adoption and use of mobile technologies has increasingly provided people and organizations with the ability to work away from the office and on the move. The new way of working afforded by these technologies are often characterized in terms of the access to information and people ‘anywhere, anytime ’. Normative theories of urban design have explored the characteristic to make a good city since a long time now, despite their differences urban design theories generally assume that the organization of urban space and social organization is mutually contingent, and each social change will transform the cities. From this it follows that the city in the digital age is fundamentally different form the pre-digital one, spatially as well as socially. The existing urban design theories mostly belong to the pre-digital age, so there is a need to understand the digital technologies and their engagement with people in urban space. The study attempts to analyze the selected urban public space on the bases on their probability of being successful for mobile workers. The study uses survey schedule, Interview conducted with mobile workers, morphological survey to understand the physical layout of the space. Non-obstructive observational survey is also conducted to understand the behavior pattern of mobile workers. By focusing on the physical features like spatial characteristic, access, location and neighborhood attributes of urban public spaces the study tries to find out what characteristic plays major role in making a urban public space successful for mobile workers. Specifically the objective of the study to assess the success of selected urban public space and based on the design aspect.