The urban regeneration implemented in Guayaquil and Barcelona. Unveiling the project rhetoric of public space

Abstract

The construction of public spaces is strategic for urban governance, since it creates symbols of political legitimacy while at the same time specifying the objective of economic profitability. Its promotion is supported by a discourse shared among governors, promoters and architects, aimed at enhancing the qualities of public space as a place for citizens, and concealing the privatization of capital gains and the implementation of control policies to regulate urban sociability. Evidencing what operates behind this rhetoric implies revealing the design stage of the Malecón 2000 in Guayaquil and the Olympic Village in Barcelona, from which it is possible to identify the institutional construct that determined the configuration of the built environment. The execution of both projects took place under a business urban management model, which ratifies the foundation of the public space as an ideological product at the service of the capitalist reappropriation of the city.