Papers by Alessia Allegri
Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation/Advances in science, technology & innovation, 2024
Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges, 2017
The cultivation of new types of oranges can be a good alternative for citrus growers because ther... more The cultivation of new types of oranges can be a good alternative for citrus growers because there is a growing domestic market and good export prospects. Due to these expectations, it is essential to search for new cultivars for use in the fresh fruit industry. Therefore, the aim of this work was to physicochemically characterize the fruits of new cultivars of 'Navel' oranges, seeking alternatives with good characteristics, such as earliness, lack of seeds, good color and organoleptic characteristics desired by the consumer market. The fruits of five new cultivars of 'Navel' orange were evaluated, namely, 'Bahia Valente' (CN 28), 'Golden Nugget Navel' (CN 41), ''Robertson Navel'' (CN 39), 'Washington Navel' (CV 27) and 'Washington Navel I' (CN 34), during two harvest seasons (2012/2013 and 2013/2014). The following physicochemical variables were quantified: mass, peel color, juice yield, acidity, soluble solids and ratio. The cultivars studied were compared to the commercial cultivar 'Bahia Cabula' (CV 25). The new cultivars produced fruit with standards that met consumer expectations, with fruit mass suitable for sale of the fresh fruit, good yield juice and early maturation (March), which enables harvesting 'Bahia Cabula' in the off-season period. Thus, it is concluded that there are navel orange cultivars with acceptable physicochemical qualities and early maturation.
Human Factors in Architecture, Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure, 2022
Worldwide, are emerging several forms of uses of space, activities, expressions, and relationship... more Worldwide, are emerging several forms of uses of space, activities, expressions, and relationships that enable and empower temporariness and sharing in the urban spaces: it is what we call Intermittent Practices (IP). IP are generating significant changes on the urban context and new challenges to policy, planning, and governance. The research project "Intermittent Lisbon. Temporary uses and sharing practices in the adaptive city" focuses on the distinctive sort of intermittences that occur in the different dimensions of public life, driving urban transformations and causing disruptions in the conventional relations between space, time and use. The present paper stems from this project and reports the mapping, systematization and interpretative reading of a collection of IP case studies. Using previously defined criteria, 10 examples will be addressed, covering the following five areas: 1. Housing and Working; Services, Leisure, Trade, 3. Culture and Artistic Action, 4. Mobility, 5. Public space and Community use. We consider that the reconceptualization of temporariness and sharing can lead to the definition of new disciplinary paradigms in which flexibility and adaptability become fundamental elements of the design processes. Therefore, a critical evaluation of this in progress phenomena is essential and an opportunity to rethink the way we live cities and design them, also in light of the pandemic crisis we have just experienced.
Along with the political, socioeconomic and technological changes that emerged in the new millenn... more Along with the political, socioeconomic and technological changes that emerged in the new millennium, cities have been under significant changes. Values of temporariness and sharing have appeared in different dimensions of the public life, driving urban transformations, disrupting conventional relations between space, time, and use and proving the need to evolve more nuanced discussions on the nature of a city. We call this set of alternative spaces, activities, expressions, and relationships that enable and empower temporariness and sharing in the urban spaces, Intermittent Practices. Addressing this complex reality, the present workpart of a recently started research projectaims to reflect about temporariness and sharing as drivers of the contemporary urban changes. It also intends to think about the new challenges that temporary and sharing practices seem to provoke to policy, planning, and governance. Finally, to better illustrate the multiple perspectives of these dynamics as well as their impacts on new architectures (new programs, new typologies, new occupations, new aesthetics) and new ways of living and generating urban space, the text focus on the Lisbon's intermittences, giving a brief example of how, methodologically, the case studies under analysis will be systematized. Keywords: Intermittent city Á Intermittent practices Á Temporary uses Á Sharing practices Á Innovative architecture Á Innovative planning 1 Temporariness and Sharing as Drivers of the Contemporary Urban Changes Over the past years, the patterns of life have changed greatly, including new social power relations, family structures and gender roles, wealth (in)equality, mass migration, ageing population, etc. Meanwhile, new technologies have taken over by establishing how, where, and when we act, prompting questions about privacy and identity [5]. Alongside these factors, cities have been under significant changes, incorporating values of temporariness and sharing in urban processes, disrupting traditional relations between space, time, and use [14].
Research Tracks in Urbanism: Dynamics, Planning and Design in Contemporary Urban Territories, 2021
The recent years have witnessed significant changes in commercial distribution systems. The globa... more The recent years have witnessed significant changes in commercial distribution systems. The global financial crisis and its effects on the economy have certainly affected the actions of the economic agents, including consumers, and inevitably have gave rise to a range of phenomena that lead to an evident change in the configuration of the commercial spaces and consuming behaviour. I refer to leftover stock markets, temporary trading places of all kinds, sale of home made products, the reduction of generic commercialisation spaces and the increase of specialised areas, the “community orientated consumption”, or even “necessity retails”, “obsolete factories”, “street markets”. I call this phenomena ‘ post-shopping commerce ’. In short, it is a new commercial dictionary that, by drawing a diversified geography of commerce, shapes alternative and important hubs of urbanity and becomes the engine of interesting spatial, social and economic dynamics. The space is no longer moulded by a g...
El trabajo de investigacion presenta un estudio de los espacios comerciales, con especial enfasis... more El trabajo de investigacion presenta un estudio de los espacios comerciales, con especial enfasis en la averiguacion de las relaciones existentes entre las formas del tejido urbano y el diseno de los lugares de comercio. Convencidos de que la planificacion de las actividades comerciales no puede asumir un caracter puramente economico y de gestion, sino que debe ocupar un papel central en el discurso sobre la ciudad, este trabajo trata de arrojar luz sobre los mecanismos de produccion reciproca de ciudad y sistema comercial, o de su mutua negacion. La interpretacion de la relacion entre comercio y ciudad ha sido explicada a traves del estudio taxonomico de los modelos comerciales que han caracterizado la ciudad de Lisboa desde 1970 hasta 2010. El analisis de la reciente historia comercial de la capital portuguesa, lleva a la definicion de tres macro-categorias que corresponden a otros tantos tipos de relacion entre ciudad y comercio: los sistemas comerciales simbioticos, comensalista...
Dearq Revista de Arquitectura / Journal of Architecture
22Nd Isuf Conference City As Organism New Visions For Urban Life, Jan 16, 2015
U+D Urbanform and Design, Monographic Issue Retail Environment Retail Environment, 2019
Commerce and the city are both located at the deep core of the idea of an urban body. Complement... more Commerce and the city are both located at the deep core of the idea of an urban body. Complementing and producing one another, they generate spaces that are built up on the complex synergy between social practices, physical space, its modes of use, as well as on cultural and symbolic factors.
Taking the above ideas as a starting point, the present paper - mainly made up of an inventory of interpretative drawings of the diversity of cases - aims at decoding the complexity that characterizes the inseparable bond between urban spaces and commercial places.
Using the case study of the Portuguese capital between 1970 and 2010, and taking a step beyond a typological classification analysis, the drawings explore the type of relationship and mutual dependence that commercial places establish with the urban environment around them. This allows us to identify the morphological and functional features that favor or deny the relationship between commerce and city.
Specifically, this paper presents part of the Atlas of the Commercial Systems of Lisbon – drawn during the Phd project titled “Mientras Apolo 70 viaja hacia Alvalaxia XXI, Colombo y Vasco da Gama nos descubren outra ciudad. La dimensión urbana del comercio. Lisboa 1970-2010”.
The primary main idea of the Atlas is the creation of a theoretical-practical framework of reference for the design of urban spaces, addressing an urban typology that plays a leading role in the mediation between city, its practices and values: the commercial place.
Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges, 2017
Aware of the inseparable relationship between public space and commercial space, this paper aims ... more Aware of the inseparable relationship between public space and commercial space, this paper aims at reading Lefebvre's concept of a "right to the city" through a survey of urban places for commerce. Commerce and the city have always been complementing and constituting one other, generating spaces that are built up on the complex synergy between social practices, physical space and its modes of use. However, this centuries-long ability of commerce to contribute to the "making of the city" began to be questioned when commercial settlements started to close in upon themselves, turning into structures that are no longer open and permeable to urban life. Lately, though, we are witnessing different transient urban phenomena, such as "temporary" commercial occupancy of space: ordinary people producing space-not necessarily physically, sometimes just transfiguring its meaning and value-through the pursuit of their own needs, transgressing the formal spatial and temporal boundaries of the lived spaces of everyday life. In some way, temporary commercial spaces celebrate Lefebvre's idea of a city that is accessible to everybody, making it possible for inhabitants to regain control of the city's decision-making and space creating processes.
Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure, 2021
Along with the political, socioeconomic and technological changes that emerged in the new millenn... more Along with the political, socioeconomic and technological changes that emerged in the new millennium, cities have been under significant changes. Values of temporariness and sharing have appeared in different dimensions of the public life, driving urban transformations, disrupting conventional relations between space, time, and use and proving the need to evolve more nuanced discussions on the nature of a city. We call this set of alternative spaces, activities, expressions, and relationships that enable and empower temporariness and sharing in the urban spaces, Intermittent Practices. Addressing this complex reality, the present workpart of a recently started research projectaims to reflect about temporariness and sharing as drivers of the contemporary urban changes. It also intends to think about the new challenges that temporary and sharing practices seem to provoke to policy, planning, and governance. Finally, to better illustrate the multiple perspectives of these dynamics as well as their impacts on new architectures (new programs, new typologies, new occupations, new aesthetics) and new ways of living and generating urban space, the text focus on the Lisbon's intermittences, giving a brief example of how, methodologically, the case studies under analysis will be systematized. Keywords: Intermittent city Á Intermittent practices Á Temporary uses Á Sharing practices Á Innovative architecture Á Innovative planning 1 Temporariness and Sharing as Drivers of the Contemporary Urban Changes Over the past years, the patterns of life have changed greatly, including new social power relations, family structures and gender roles, wealth (in)equality, mass migration, ageing population, etc. Meanwhile, new technologies have taken over by establishing how, where, and when we act, prompting questions about privacy and identity [5]. Alongside these factors, cities have been under significant changes, incorporating values of temporariness and sharing in urban processes, disrupting traditional relations between space, time, and use [14].
L'articolo presenta alcune considerazioni scaturite durante il progetto di ricerca post-dottorale... more L'articolo presenta alcune considerazioni scaturite durante il progetto di ricerca post-dottorale intitolato “Post – Shopping Commerce. New Urban Patterns of Commercial Activities” che, interpretando il commercio come un elemento chiave nell'esperienza urbana e nella costruzione fisica (“forma”), funzionale (“uso") e simbolica (“senso”) della città, propone una riflessione sugli attuali cambiamenti urbani promossi dalle attività commerciali, e viceversa.
Lo studio riflette sulle recenti trasformazioni commerciali e sull’uso degli spazi pubblici in alcune città europee, mettendo in luce l’evidente “deterritorializzazione” del commercio, dall’onnipresente e-commerce alla più sottile e diversificata utilizzazione temporanea dello spazio pubblico per uso commerciale.
Le trasformazioni in atto sfidano l’illusione delle città percepite come entità stabili e statiche alterando profondamente gli usi e i valori prestabiliti degli spazi urbani e della vita sociale. Stimolando pratiche urbane completamente nuove, esse configurano luoghi dove le differenze tra privato e pubblico, interno ed esterno, locale e globale, lavoro e tempo libero, economia e politica appaiono sfuocate.
Tutto ciò induce a ripensare la pratica professionale dell’architetto-urbanista, aprendo il dibattito sulle strategie e sugli strumenti della pianificazione canonica. Se i fenomeni commerciali attuali e, in particolare gli usi temporanei dello spazio pubblico, sono un importante motore di trasformazione delle nostre città –in alcuni casi durevole-, come possiamo incorporarli alla pianificazione? Il non pianificato può essere pianificato?
Convencidos de que la planificación de las actividades comerciales no puede asumir un carácter pu... more Convencidos de que la planificación de las actividades comerciales no puede asumir un carácter puramente económico y de gestión, sino que debe ocupar un papel central en el discurso sobre la ciudad, esta investigación trata de arrojar luz sobre los mecanismos de producción recíproca de ciudad y sistema comercial, o de su mutua negación.
O artigo introduze o projeto de investigação de pós-doc que se baseia no recente doutoramento. Ap... more O artigo introduze o projeto de investigação de pós-doc que se baseia no recente doutoramento. Aprofundando o tema, fornece uma análise exaustiva das áreas de "Post-Shopping Commerce": uma ampla gama de novos modelos comerciais que representam pólos alternativos de urbanidade e inovadores motores de interessantes dinâmicas sociais e económicas, que vão desde lugares de troca temporária de todos os tipos, “underground restaurants”, “brand marketing”, até a venda personalizada, e mesmo ‘necessity retails’ e ‘obsolete factories’.
Dirigindo a atenção para a especificidade dos espaços comerciais Post-Shopping, este estudo visa ilustrar, questionar e reflectir sobre tais fenómenos e o seu lugar dentro da teoria e prática do planeamento, baseado na premissa de que os espaços comerciais têm um papel significativo a desempenhar na transformação e consolidação da atual cidade / território e na sua "cityness" (ou urbanidade).
This is a study of commercial spaces, focusing on the exploration of the existing relationship be... more This is a study of commercial spaces, focusing on the exploration of the existing relationship between the urban shapes and the design of commercial spaces. The planning of commercial activities cannot limit itself to purely economic and management dimensions, but should be central to any debate on the city. This inquiry contributes to illuminate the mechanisms of production of city and commercial systems that can be either mutually reinforcing or mutually negating. Our interpretation of the relationship between the commercial spaces and the city is based on the taxonomic study of commercial models that characterised Lisbon from 1970 to 2010. This analysis of its recent commercial history has led to the definition of three macro-categories of commercial systems that illustrate three types of relationships between the city and its commercial dimension: symbiotic, commensal, and parasitic.
Conference Presentations by Alessia Allegri
The text introduces the current post-doc research project, which builds on the recent PhD thesis,... more The text introduces the current post-doc research project, which builds on the recent PhD thesis, deepening its survey with an exhaustive analysis of the areas of post-shopping commerce.
Drawing on Pirenne (1939) according to whom cities are“daughters of trade and their essence of being”, this paper supports the idea that the binomial city/commerce cannot be separated. Throughout time, from the streets and squares of the medieval town or from the covered market of the eighteenth century to the large department stores and commercial galleries of the nineteenth century, public commercial spaces have never lost the common bond of being a mix of interaction, city expression, urban architecture and an extension of the space and public purposes of the urban centres.
However, at a certain moment of the twentieth century, this relationship changed considerably: consumption becomes the paradigm of the modern city and the Shopping Centres, by simulating the streets and squares, become the new collective space par excellence (Chung et al. 2002, Ritzer2000, Solá Morales1992, Sorkin2004).
Nevertheless, the changes do not end there; the transformation of the commercial spaces continued into the twenty first century.
Thus, what comes next after the era of the Shopping Mall? And what kind of relationship exists between city and commerce?
A very large range of phenomena are taking place and, inevitably, an evident change in the configuration of the commercial spaces and consuming behaviour is occurring. It’s a long catalogue: street vendors, veritable stalls on wheels, spontaneous shops on the streets and squares, as well as “necessity retails”, “obsolete factories”, “market street”, literally occupying the urban public space or disused places with an univocal formal definition, whose meaning and value they transfigure.
This today’s retail pluralism, identifying a diversified geography of commerce, shapes alternative and important hubs of urbanity and becomes the engine of interesting spatial, social and economic dynamics. The space is no longer moulded by decisions centred in a
few and large operators and drivers of change, but rather by a polyarchicand ever-changing model where distinct uses and diverse situations legitimately overlap, in opposition to the growing pressure for homogenisation of the city understood as a place of consensus and consumption.
City, as its representational use values changes, is obliged to take the complexity, uncertainty, spontaneity and heterogeneity of the cultural and social mutations conveyed by these phenomena into account.
Considering all the above, the paper aims to analyse such phenomena, and their evolutionary processes,based on the premise that commercial spaces have a significant role to play in the planning and, paradoxically, even the “non-planning” of places. Therefore, it is essential for us to understand the origins, shape and meaning of current changesby directing the attention to the specificity of post-shopping commercial spaces.
Keywords (3-5): commercial space, public space, commerce, city, commercial urbanism
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Papers by Alessia Allegri
Taking the above ideas as a starting point, the present paper - mainly made up of an inventory of interpretative drawings of the diversity of cases - aims at decoding the complexity that characterizes the inseparable bond between urban spaces and commercial places.
Using the case study of the Portuguese capital between 1970 and 2010, and taking a step beyond a typological classification analysis, the drawings explore the type of relationship and mutual dependence that commercial places establish with the urban environment around them. This allows us to identify the morphological and functional features that favor or deny the relationship between commerce and city.
Specifically, this paper presents part of the Atlas of the Commercial Systems of Lisbon – drawn during the Phd project titled “Mientras Apolo 70 viaja hacia Alvalaxia XXI, Colombo y Vasco da Gama nos descubren outra ciudad. La dimensión urbana del comercio. Lisboa 1970-2010”.
The primary main idea of the Atlas is the creation of a theoretical-practical framework of reference for the design of urban spaces, addressing an urban typology that plays a leading role in the mediation between city, its practices and values: the commercial place.
Lo studio riflette sulle recenti trasformazioni commerciali e sull’uso degli spazi pubblici in alcune città europee, mettendo in luce l’evidente “deterritorializzazione” del commercio, dall’onnipresente e-commerce alla più sottile e diversificata utilizzazione temporanea dello spazio pubblico per uso commerciale.
Le trasformazioni in atto sfidano l’illusione delle città percepite come entità stabili e statiche alterando profondamente gli usi e i valori prestabiliti degli spazi urbani e della vita sociale. Stimolando pratiche urbane completamente nuove, esse configurano luoghi dove le differenze tra privato e pubblico, interno ed esterno, locale e globale, lavoro e tempo libero, economia e politica appaiono sfuocate.
Tutto ciò induce a ripensare la pratica professionale dell’architetto-urbanista, aprendo il dibattito sulle strategie e sugli strumenti della pianificazione canonica. Se i fenomeni commerciali attuali e, in particolare gli usi temporanei dello spazio pubblico, sono un importante motore di trasformazione delle nostre città –in alcuni casi durevole-, come possiamo incorporarli alla pianificazione? Il non pianificato può essere pianificato?
Dirigindo a atenção para a especificidade dos espaços comerciais Post-Shopping, este estudo visa ilustrar, questionar e reflectir sobre tais fenómenos e o seu lugar dentro da teoria e prática do planeamento, baseado na premissa de que os espaços comerciais têm um papel significativo a desempenhar na transformação e consolidação da atual cidade / território e na sua "cityness" (ou urbanidade).
Conference Presentations by Alessia Allegri
Drawing on Pirenne (1939) according to whom cities are“daughters of trade and their essence of being”, this paper supports the idea that the binomial city/commerce cannot be separated. Throughout time, from the streets and squares of the medieval town or from the covered market of the eighteenth century to the large department stores and commercial galleries of the nineteenth century, public commercial spaces have never lost the common bond of being a mix of interaction, city expression, urban architecture and an extension of the space and public purposes of the urban centres.
However, at a certain moment of the twentieth century, this relationship changed considerably: consumption becomes the paradigm of the modern city and the Shopping Centres, by simulating the streets and squares, become the new collective space par excellence (Chung et al. 2002, Ritzer2000, Solá Morales1992, Sorkin2004).
Nevertheless, the changes do not end there; the transformation of the commercial spaces continued into the twenty first century.
Thus, what comes next after the era of the Shopping Mall? And what kind of relationship exists between city and commerce?
A very large range of phenomena are taking place and, inevitably, an evident change in the configuration of the commercial spaces and consuming behaviour is occurring. It’s a long catalogue: street vendors, veritable stalls on wheels, spontaneous shops on the streets and squares, as well as “necessity retails”, “obsolete factories”, “market street”, literally occupying the urban public space or disused places with an univocal formal definition, whose meaning and value they transfigure.
This today’s retail pluralism, identifying a diversified geography of commerce, shapes alternative and important hubs of urbanity and becomes the engine of interesting spatial, social and economic dynamics. The space is no longer moulded by decisions centred in a
few and large operators and drivers of change, but rather by a polyarchicand ever-changing model where distinct uses and diverse situations legitimately overlap, in opposition to the growing pressure for homogenisation of the city understood as a place of consensus and consumption.
City, as its representational use values changes, is obliged to take the complexity, uncertainty, spontaneity and heterogeneity of the cultural and social mutations conveyed by these phenomena into account.
Considering all the above, the paper aims to analyse such phenomena, and their evolutionary processes,based on the premise that commercial spaces have a significant role to play in the planning and, paradoxically, even the “non-planning” of places. Therefore, it is essential for us to understand the origins, shape and meaning of current changesby directing the attention to the specificity of post-shopping commercial spaces.
Keywords (3-5): commercial space, public space, commerce, city, commercial urbanism
Taking the above ideas as a starting point, the present paper - mainly made up of an inventory of interpretative drawings of the diversity of cases - aims at decoding the complexity that characterizes the inseparable bond between urban spaces and commercial places.
Using the case study of the Portuguese capital between 1970 and 2010, and taking a step beyond a typological classification analysis, the drawings explore the type of relationship and mutual dependence that commercial places establish with the urban environment around them. This allows us to identify the morphological and functional features that favor or deny the relationship between commerce and city.
Specifically, this paper presents part of the Atlas of the Commercial Systems of Lisbon – drawn during the Phd project titled “Mientras Apolo 70 viaja hacia Alvalaxia XXI, Colombo y Vasco da Gama nos descubren outra ciudad. La dimensión urbana del comercio. Lisboa 1970-2010”.
The primary main idea of the Atlas is the creation of a theoretical-practical framework of reference for the design of urban spaces, addressing an urban typology that plays a leading role in the mediation between city, its practices and values: the commercial place.
Lo studio riflette sulle recenti trasformazioni commerciali e sull’uso degli spazi pubblici in alcune città europee, mettendo in luce l’evidente “deterritorializzazione” del commercio, dall’onnipresente e-commerce alla più sottile e diversificata utilizzazione temporanea dello spazio pubblico per uso commerciale.
Le trasformazioni in atto sfidano l’illusione delle città percepite come entità stabili e statiche alterando profondamente gli usi e i valori prestabiliti degli spazi urbani e della vita sociale. Stimolando pratiche urbane completamente nuove, esse configurano luoghi dove le differenze tra privato e pubblico, interno ed esterno, locale e globale, lavoro e tempo libero, economia e politica appaiono sfuocate.
Tutto ciò induce a ripensare la pratica professionale dell’architetto-urbanista, aprendo il dibattito sulle strategie e sugli strumenti della pianificazione canonica. Se i fenomeni commerciali attuali e, in particolare gli usi temporanei dello spazio pubblico, sono un importante motore di trasformazione delle nostre città –in alcuni casi durevole-, come possiamo incorporarli alla pianificazione? Il non pianificato può essere pianificato?
Dirigindo a atenção para a especificidade dos espaços comerciais Post-Shopping, este estudo visa ilustrar, questionar e reflectir sobre tais fenómenos e o seu lugar dentro da teoria e prática do planeamento, baseado na premissa de que os espaços comerciais têm um papel significativo a desempenhar na transformação e consolidação da atual cidade / território e na sua "cityness" (ou urbanidade).
Drawing on Pirenne (1939) according to whom cities are“daughters of trade and their essence of being”, this paper supports the idea that the binomial city/commerce cannot be separated. Throughout time, from the streets and squares of the medieval town or from the covered market of the eighteenth century to the large department stores and commercial galleries of the nineteenth century, public commercial spaces have never lost the common bond of being a mix of interaction, city expression, urban architecture and an extension of the space and public purposes of the urban centres.
However, at a certain moment of the twentieth century, this relationship changed considerably: consumption becomes the paradigm of the modern city and the Shopping Centres, by simulating the streets and squares, become the new collective space par excellence (Chung et al. 2002, Ritzer2000, Solá Morales1992, Sorkin2004).
Nevertheless, the changes do not end there; the transformation of the commercial spaces continued into the twenty first century.
Thus, what comes next after the era of the Shopping Mall? And what kind of relationship exists between city and commerce?
A very large range of phenomena are taking place and, inevitably, an evident change in the configuration of the commercial spaces and consuming behaviour is occurring. It’s a long catalogue: street vendors, veritable stalls on wheels, spontaneous shops on the streets and squares, as well as “necessity retails”, “obsolete factories”, “market street”, literally occupying the urban public space or disused places with an univocal formal definition, whose meaning and value they transfigure.
This today’s retail pluralism, identifying a diversified geography of commerce, shapes alternative and important hubs of urbanity and becomes the engine of interesting spatial, social and economic dynamics. The space is no longer moulded by decisions centred in a
few and large operators and drivers of change, but rather by a polyarchicand ever-changing model where distinct uses and diverse situations legitimately overlap, in opposition to the growing pressure for homogenisation of the city understood as a place of consensus and consumption.
City, as its representational use values changes, is obliged to take the complexity, uncertainty, spontaneity and heterogeneity of the cultural and social mutations conveyed by these phenomena into account.
Considering all the above, the paper aims to analyse such phenomena, and their evolutionary processes,based on the premise that commercial spaces have a significant role to play in the planning and, paradoxically, even the “non-planning” of places. Therefore, it is essential for us to understand the origins, shape and meaning of current changesby directing the attention to the specificity of post-shopping commercial spaces.
Keywords (3-5): commercial space, public space, commerce, city, commercial urbanism