The geography of public landscapes: Exploring and representing the public dimension of contemporary landscapes

Public space is considered a key indicator of social transformations. By means of the analysis of taking care and neglecting processes of these spaces, it is possible to infer the direction of public sphere evolution. Therefore, over the last years, scholars and designers, in search of new patterns of relationship between people and space, are focusing their attention on the new urban gardening phenomena. However, there are places where these phenomena are not new, where space and urban culture are historically characterized by habits of taking care of mundane public space. The aim of this paper is the investigation of the long-lasting tracks of these behaviours still recognizable in places far and different from the bigger and well known urban centres. Observing the traditional experiences of urban gardening in some inland villages in Sardinia, this article will also reveal how the actions of taking care of public space can be used as indicators of the peculiarities of connections between populations and places. The features of these enduring phenomena could suggest how the public space perceptions are changing and which could be the future direction of the public space design and research.