Public Space as a Public Good: Some Reflections on Public Space to Enjoy Solitude

This paper explores the public space as a public good. Public space is understood as a ‘void' in the urban continuum that has unlimited access for the city dwellers. We study the public space as a physical, material space, as imaginative material space and as a formative part of the public domain in order to answer the following question: what are the aspects of public space that articulate the city? The public space is necessary for social and economic reasons. The city needs both spaces to socialise, meeting places, and above all, spaces for the enjoyment of solitude. A public park, for example, can at the same time fulfil both social needs. A public space is also economically efficient. It is unfeasible for each person to own a garden with majestic trees, a large pond and a vine-covered pergola. But many people could for example at the same time use a public park that has all these features. The public space as defined in this paper has the two characteristics that define a public good, namely non-excludability and non-rivalry. Public spaces are non-excludable by definition as everyone can access them. They can be, and sometimes are, to an extent nonrivalrous. That is, the enjoyment of a user does not detract from the enjoyment of any other. It follows that when users start to interfere negatively with each other's enjoyment the public good becomes congested and it is not able to perform all or some of its functions.