IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p7837-d849033.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Outdoor Terraces in Barcelona and Milan: Configuration of New Spaces for Social Interaction

Author

Listed:
  • Emma Maev O’Connell

    (Department of Urban Design and Territorial Planning, UPC-Barcelona TECH, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Eulàlia Gomez-Escoda

    (Barcelona Laboratory of Urbanism, UPC-Barcelona TECH, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Álvaro Clua Uceda

    (Barcelona Laboratory of Urbanism, UPC-Barcelona TECH, 08028 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

This work approaches the phenomenon of the outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants, analysing the role of these privately owned collective elements whose layout has shaped the urban landscape at the pavement level for more than a century, and whose presence has become essential in the streets of many cities after a pandemic. The research highlights the interest of terraces as dynamic elements of urbanity: private domains in the public space where people eat collectively; they are apparently simple units that synthesise complex conflicts between individual behaviours and property boundary conditions. The investigation shows the increasing expansion that outdoor terraces have experienced since 2020, using the cities of Barcelona and Milan as case studies. A series of GIS maps show the image of both cities before and after the pandemic, allowing us to evaluate the amount of public space allocated to terraces, measure their increase in number and surface, establish the proportions of occupation of the street and find the patterns of concentration in the public space. Finally, the article offers some policy and planning recommendations based on the research findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Maev O’Connell & Eulàlia Gomez-Escoda & Álvaro Clua Uceda, 2022. "Outdoor Terraces in Barcelona and Milan: Configuration of New Spaces for Social Interaction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-32, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7837-:d:849033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7837/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7837/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Inés Aquilué & Angélica Caicedo & Joan Moreno & Miquel Estrada & Laia Pagès, 2021. "A Methodology for Assessing the Impact of Living Labs on Urban Design: The Case of the Furnish Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-29, April.
    2. Carlos Alonso-Montolio & Gloria Serra-Coch & Antonio Isalgue & Helena Coch, 2021. "The Energy Consumption of Terraces in the Barcelona Public Space: Heating the Street," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Conejo-Arrabal & Carlos Rosa-Jiménez & Nuria Nebot-Gómez de Salazar, 2023. "Patterns of Public Spaces in Spanish Mediterranean Touristified Historic Centres Based on Their Activities: Case Study of Malaga," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erick Elysio Reis Amorim & Monique Menezes & Karoline Vitória Gonçalves Fernandes, 2022. "Urban Living Labs and Critical Infrastructure Resilience: A Global Match?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Virgilio Pérez & Cristina Aybar & Jose M. Pavía, 2021. "COVID-19 and Changes in Social Habits. Restaurant Terraces, a Booming Space in Cities. The Case of Madrid," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(17), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Doina Petrescu & Helena Cermeño & Carsten Keller & Carola Moujan & Andrew Belfield & Florian Koch & Denise Goff & Meike Schalk & Floris Bernhardt, 2022. "Sharing and Space-Commoning Knowledge Through Urban Living Labs Across Different European Cities," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 254-273.
    4. Marco Rossitti & Alessandra Oppio & Francesca Torrieri & Marta Dell’Ovo, 2023. "Tactical Urbanism Interventions for the Urban Environment: Which Economic Impacts?," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-25, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7837-:d:849033. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.