The Phenomenon of Urban Public Space (One Street, Two Days Megacities: the Experience of Social Experiment in Odessa)

Abstract

The article examines the process of social experiment in Odessa «Zhukov Okkupay». The practical problems of urban areas. The project was initiated by the NGO Urban Inst conjunction with the Impact Hub Odessa. The peculiarities of perception of public space by different categories of residents proposed main areas of transformation of the social space of the city and the extrapolation of these approaches to daily activities to change the functionality of the space city. The results of the experiment recorded the differences of interests for different groups of users of public space, together with the lack of support from the side of the local community and the legitimacy of the actions are the reasons for which is difficult to implement changes at the level of the urban environment.
The solution of the problem by providing an open public space status of a kind of forum where people of all ages, origins, income would have the opportunity to interact with each other is offered. In the absence of coordinated interaction between the public space and its direct consumer services, further space is neutral and uncomfortable, «empty» in terms of meanings and cultural values and can be «privatized» marginal elements of the urban community, or natural and uncontrollable communities.