PPS's city commentaries examine the state of public spaces in global cities. We have completed commentaries for Paris, London, and Barcelona, with New York scheduled for release early next year. Our intention is to encourage discussion about the challenges and opportunities that face major cities today, and what is being done in response. Below, landscape architect Andrea Hamann and PPS's Fred Kent exchange thoughts on the Barcelona Commentary.

I have been reading your critiques of public space in Barcelona, and have had a quick read of some of the other critiques for other cities. As someone who has a passion for public, as opposed to private or commercial spaces, I think PPS is a great resource, however I have some serious reservations about these critiques. They seem heavily biased. It seems classic, old-school spaces directly head for the positive critique, and anything contemporary heads for the hall of shame. I challenge you to make some positive critiques about contemporary public space. It seems to me that many of the positive critiques focus on a particular 'style' of space, and anything 'hi-tech' or contemporary is automatically discarded.

I question whether many of these critiques are based on taste rather than the quality of the space. What are your criteria for judging a good space? It doesn't need to be full of people and 100 years old to be a good space. I also query this inherent dislike for skateboarders taking over space. I presume you would rather have them competing with you on the footpath?

Maybe you should head to Rotterdam, or Amsterdam next, there are definitely some interesting spaces there. Shouwburgplein in Rotterdam by West 8 (Adriaan Geuze) is a good example. Berlin is also a town with some pretty interesting contemporary public spaces. For industrial spaces, Duisburg North Landscape Park is a good example. It is popular for everything from light shows to rock climbing to bicycling.

I also have some amazing photographs taken outside MACBA Barcelona, which would put your critique of that space to shame. I was wandering through the back streets aimlessly, exploring the city, and stumbled onto that space. It was wonderful how tightly knit urban fabric suddenly opened out to a vast space. It was full of people, with a contemporary dance performance in the middle. Yeah, it was hot, there were no benches trees or lawn, but the energy was amazing. There were all kinds of people there, with food stalls and music. It was perfect for a melding of culture and the arts. The backdrop of the old and new city fabric was fantastic.

On the other hand, Parc Espanya Industrial was a desolate run down place when I visited. I was actually scared of getting mugged whilst I was there, there were discarded needles everywhere, and the place was empty. The lake was smelly, the towers were daunting and seemed meaningless, definitely enhancing the sense of the industrial, but not in a welcoming manner (unlike some of the industrial parks in Germany for instance) -- and pretty ugly to boot. If you want to critique a space for being a giant art piece that has gone wrong, then this is it.

If you take my description of the above two spaces, they are almost the inverse of your critiques, which leads me to question just how personal and biased a critique of a space can be? It also seems very dependent on which day you visit the space.

Anyway, I will keep reading, even if I don't agree.

Cheers, Andrea Hamann

We are ecstatic when we find contemporary designs for public spaces that work. We believe that modern materials can, if used effectively, be used to create great places, but such examples are rare to non-existent. A number of articles in our September newsletter explored our thoughts on these topics in detail.

We don't mind skateboarders, but what we do mind is any one user group dominating to the exclusion of others. The MACBA plaza can sometimes be wonderful, but when there is not some festival in it, it doesn't work. As far as the Parc Espanya Industrial, I can fully appreciate your comments. Maintaining it would be a nightmare.

In the end it is really all about management of the space. Both of the ones you comment on can be great if managed well -- and awful if not. But we would go a bit further and say that a great space has to work when there are no events... essentially it should be self-managing.

Fred Kent