Assessing the Trends in Public Space Network in Metropolitan Cities,A Case of Bengaluru

Abstract: The character of a city is determined by the quality and multitude relationships that arise from its user engagement in public space. It creates socio-cultural consistency in a location, promotes the revitalization of cities by way of community renewal and economic development. They are places of transformation and offer ways to cater to the needs of a diverse set of users. In India, public places evolved out of social synergies in terms of the interaction in various community spaces viz. religious places, market areas, lakes, and gardens/plazas/chowks etc. However, in a scenario of rapid urbanization and modernization, depleting blue-green networks leads to scarce public spaces, transforming them further into privatized domains across cities and their neighborhoods. Pandemic has taught us the intrinsic value of having public spaces that are engaging, resilient to support a demography as diverse as the activities in Bengaluru. The social, economic, and spatial character of the city has seen a rapid change. This diverse city has pockets of old areas that developed in an organic manner due to the presence of natural/ cultural significance, old planned areas, and new urban sprawls each with their own unique relationship with their public space network. The paper will study the morphological structure of two neighborhoods of contrast development pattern in a metropolitan city through structured interviews and field surveys. The study also explores and assess tangible as well as perceived benefits of public spaces on the urban environment along the demographic and socio-economic spectrums.