Sala Borsa: plural presences and innovative public spaces

The public realm represents the “hearth” of a city; it has always played a main role in the formation of a civic culture. Today, however, some authors stress that we are seeing the end of public space (Mitchell 1995) as the one in which all citizens can find a representation. City as a public and collective entity, indeed, is fragmented in many self-segregating domains; a public and shared dimension does not emerge here, nothing that could manifest and strengthen itself in public spaces. Is it possible today finding spaces and times that might be defined as public? If it is, what role do they play? What idea of urbanity do they manifest? What kinds of relations and uses can be observed? These are the main questions we focus on. Moving from the case of Sala Borsa, a public library in the Bologna downtown, we will argue that the changes in the socio-spatial morphology of contemporary city do not impede the existence of public space. We will start with a brief review of the debate on public realm, city, and public space. Then, we will explain the research methodology and describe our case study. The following part will be focused on Sala Borsa users and uses; after that, we will stress the point of view of interviewees about public space. To conclude, we will try to find a place to our case in the debate on public space.