Turning avoided space into useable space

 Campo De La Cebada is a space in Madrid that is designed for a variety of public use. The architect steps back from programming the space and allows the community to use it for their social needs. This idea is not only adaptable, but it takes an unused space in a city, and gives the people back control on how to use it versus having a developer come in and tell the public what is going in the site without consideration of the context. I think the main idea of this project is amazing and is unfortunately rare to have a city maintain a public space like such.

This project reminded me of Chattanooga, Tennessee River Park. In this city they have designed many of the typically unusable nooks of the area and designed them to be public space. Some of the spaces that I saw were under street overpasses, alley way stairs, and awkward corners from existing infrastructure. Instead of leaving these spaces for “no man’s land” they designed water features or small amphitheaters for public use. While they programmed out some of these spaces instead of leaving them as a blank canvas for the community, they turned these once avoided areas into useable spots that the community can indulge in. 

This challenged me to see these avoided parts of cities as potential community zones. Chattanooga turned these typical areas of junkspace into something that could have public use.