Interação usuário e espaço público: estudo sobre as praças de Bocaiuva/MG

Abstract

Public spaces are essencial places in the urban fabric of the cities and they are not only elements of landscape beautification, but also places for social relations, ambiguities and conflicts of all ranks, that contribute to the vivacity of the urban atmosphere. They are important since they provide a meeting point of people from different walks of life, who daily make simple contact. As they are areas where city life takes place, the comprehension of their dynamics makes it possible to understand the sense of locality where they are inserted. On the basis of this knowledge, more assertive planing decisions may be taken in order to turn the city into a more democratic and pleasant place to live in. Therefore, this dissertation aims to analyse three public spaces in the city of Bocaiuva/MG: WanDick Dumont Square, Pedro Caldeira Square and the Railway Station Square, focusing on the meaning each one has. The adopted methodological procedure has found support in the Urban Design disciplinary field, by means of spatial analysis that considered the morphological, behavioural and perceptive aspects of each space. The methodology enabled the identification of materiality and sociability of each space, as well as the users’ assessments over them. Thus, it was possible to determine that people’s interactions with each square happens in different ways, depending on factors related to the surrounding morphology - which could be diverse or not diverse - and also on the public space itself. It can be said that the structural defects demonstrated by the field researches result from both a lack of care of the public space users and the government’s indifference that, in addition to following an outdated legislation that is filled with gaps, it does not invest in urban improvement reforms. Although these fragilities make users dissatisfied, squares keep being visited, which shows that they deserve the greatest care by the public administrators and all the civil society, so that social interactions become even stronger. It was possible to conclude as well that the procedures of public participation in the city are incipient, making people and the municipality adapted to the precarious urban situation of the public spaces. It is recommended that, from the discussions endorsed by the research, people and public administrators finally realize the importance of having quality public spaces, so that together, they elaborate urban intervention plans that are able to gradually change the image of the city.