Public spaces in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain): uses and planning.

Abstract

At the turn of the century public spaces has been a matter of issues and thinking. It has been pointed out that recent turban changes have led to a loss of quality, or a crisis, of public spaces as places accessible to everyone and for people gathering. This paper studies three different open public spaces in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). Their choice responds to the hypothesis that the use and appropriation, as well as the quality and fitting for citizen conviviality, vary according to their urban location and the urbanistic quality and recent changes in their surroundings. Through a qualitative methodology of direct observation we analyze their fitting as social places and their formal qualities as structural urban elements. As a result several recommendations for planning and management are made.