Architecture, art, public space

The desire for spiritual fulfilment through art is inherently human, as is the drive to congregate and share experiences - as Heidegger so succinctly put it, Miteinandersein. Throughout history, public space was called upon to be the scene of the meeting between art and people. In the public sphere, this relationship is a three variable equation (art, the public, and the built context in which individuals coalesce into the public) which, due to recent societal changes, is beginning to splinter into countless facets. The paper investigates three of these facets (architecture as built setting for the showcasing of art, as object of art, and as environment to be reclaimed by art) in the context of emergent spatial practices and supported by successful examples (Foster's redevelopment of Trafalgar Square, Gehry's Bilbao, Greyworld's experiments), with a view to construct an analytic grid for the art/architecture/public-space relationship in Central-Eastern European cities. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Ayse Cakir Ilhan