Use and appropriation as the everyday design of public space in the Bexiga Neighbourhood (são paulo)

- Bexiga is a historic and popular neighbourhood in São Paulo, situated between the ‘old’ city centre and the well-known banking district of Avenida Paulista. The public spaces in Bexiga thrive, despite disinvestment and lack of formal urban design initiatives. While some authors attest an ongoing dereliction of duty by the city administration towards this traditional neighbourhood, others celebrate the relative preservation of Bexiga’s architectural and cultural heritage. It is between neglect and resistance as social spaces that Bexiga’s public spaces are shaped. This chapter explores the collective nature of everyday use and its role not only as creator of the neighbourhood’s public spaces but also as designer of these spaces, albeit in latent form, through processes of use and appropriation. This rather informal character is addressed from the perspective of historical-critical research on the collective construction and evolution of Bexiga’s public spaces. Such informality provides juxta-positions of past and present, as well as of change and continuity. Led by an empirical field research, this chapter analyses the construction of public space through use and appropriation. Findings reveal that the informal character of public space implies a more fluid spatiality and relies significantly on its temporality and its collective character. The dynamics of everyday design is the result of a range of organised and impromptu actions, in such a way that an organised event can endure unexpected uses in the surrounding areas, embodying a fluid public space. There is an underlying logic in the location of these spaces, close to housing and cultural hubs. It is the persistent everyday repetition of ephemeral acts of use and appropriation that creates and designs vibrant living public spaces in the neighbourhood. This creation plays an important role in the cultural preservation of Bexiga, acting as a reinforce-ment of its collective origins and character.