Urban life quality - Public space requalification in urban centralities

Public space is a key element of urban life, enabling the consolidation of a city's social and environmental function and its democratization, thereby structuring and organizing the city as a whole. It is a versatile and adaptive space where everyone has the right to access, be, interact, and/or move freely, accommodating a diverse range of permitted activities, whether individual, collective, symbolic, exchange-oriented, or dialogical. It is within this context of everyday life that citizens exercise their right to the city. Public space contains infrastructure and services aimed at ensuring its functionality and habitat quality.

Moreover, public space incorporates various urban, architectural, landscape, heritage, cultural, natural, and ecosystem service elements, aligning with national and international principles aiming at functional efficiency, safety, environmental sustainability, resilience, climate change mitigation and adaptation, social justice, cultural diversity, urban-rural balance, aesthetic value, and landscape beauty. It also facilitates the relationship and integration with complementary spaces of public and private domain.

In addition, complemented by the Urban Green Network, public space structures the territory. Its implementation, along with strategic facilities and safe pathways, will contribute to the construction of a healthier, more inclusive, sustainable, and safer city.

However, the Metropolitan District of Quito faces several challenges in achieving a healthy, inclusive, sustainable, and safe public space. The persistence of an expansive, discontinuous, and inequitable urban growth model, coupled with a fragmented road system, has led to an excessive demand for long-distance travel. This model, which promotes the use of private vehicles, exacerbates the deficiency in qualitative and quantitative conditions in public spaces, resulting in an environment perceived as hostile.

Public space requalification in urban centralities represents a fundamental strategy to enhance a model of compact, polycentric city in response to the need to change the expansive model, particularly in the case of Quito. The polycentric model comprises a system of urban centralities that encompass well-served, accessible, connected, and diverse territories, offering a variety of activities and opportunities for the population. Public space requalification will stimulate balanced densification in central areas, significantly contributing to improving the quality of life in the city.

The strategy of public space requalification in urban centralities is integrated into the development of the Master Plan for Public Space. To this end, it is proposed to create a space for exchange between cities in the region to identify common challenges and innovative solutions, inspiring new local policies and projects focused on the revitalization, rehabilitation, or conversion of public space, currently perceived as hostile.