Changing public space

how entertainment has gone through a rise and decline and rise again in the 20th century. This
trend was the result of an increase in leisure time, rising incomes, advances in technology, and
the emergence of new sources of capital. It transformed cities from ‘landscapes of production’ to
‘landscapes of consumption’ (Zukin, 1998). Events in public spaces are thus no new development.
However, what appears to be new is that the events are organised from the top down and are
therefore more regulated. Itinerant musicians, for example, are not welcome at certain public
spaces, and are sometimes replaced by clowns or other entertainers, who are paid by the local
government or a management company. Another novelty is the magnitude of events (both in size
and number) and the adaptation of public space to accommodate this large-scale entertainment
function.
Dutch public spaces are also increasingly being turned into stages (Burgers, 1992; Hajer
& Reijndorp, 2001; Metz, 2002; RBP, 2004). The transformation of Dutch city centres from
landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption occurred in two steps. First, in the
1950s and 1960s they changed from trading and industrial sites to domains of the business and
service sector. Meanwhile most offices have left the city centres for places with lower rents,
more room to accommodate larger buildings and parking space, and better accessibility at the
fringes of the city. Since the 1990s, the city centre has now become the backdrop for the hotel
and catering industry, a stage for culture and entertainment (Burgers, 1992; Terhorst & Van de
Ven, 1999). This second transformation is less concise than the first shift from industry to the
service sector, because it involves a transformation of the service sector itself. Nevertheless, it
has great effects on public spaces, which are increasingly used as locations of events, such as
festivals. Between 1986 and 1997, the number of events in public space rose by 800 per cent, the
number of visitors by 900 per cent (Metz, 2002). Several cities have added (or are planning to
add) enabling facilities when refurbishing public spaces. These include electricity hook-ups (e.g.,
Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam, Section 6.2.2), music kiosks, and even permanent concert stages
(e.g., Grote Markt in Almere, Section 5.4).
Urban entertainment is not limited to temporary events. It is also permanently available,
notably in shopping areas. Similar to events, shopping as form of entertainment is no recent
development:
That shopping should be more than a chore, and should have about it something of
recreation and even celebration, has been recognized since markets and bazaars first took
form. The market place became in the European cities an open space coequal with those
of the city hall and the cathedral; and it was, like them, a scene of animation, a point
of meetings, a stage for the dramas and entertainments of civic life …. (Hecksher &
Robinson, 1977: 337-338)
What is relatively new is the extent to which shopping activities dominate in public space.
According to Betsky (2005), shopping has become the new ritual, something people do when
they do not work or sleep. This is not a bad development, as shopping enlivens the city, enhances
well used and shared public space, and underpins the physical structure of society. However,
visitors also become more demanding about their shopping experience. To keep attracting
them, public spaces are turned into places for fun and excitement, providing more than their
traditional fare of fountains and statues. The summit of this development are malls, which in
addition to shops also increasingly contain restaurants, museums, swimming pools (Mommaas,
2000; Mitrašinović, 2006), and sometimes even theme parks such as the West Edmonton Mall
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