Urban mobility infrastructures as public spaces: The uses of Sé subway station in downtown São Paulo

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the discussion on the publicness of public spaces by focusing on the uses of free access areas in urban mobility infrastructures such as subway stations, especially those uses not associated with mobility, transit and passenger flow – I call them ‘non-transit uses’. I also focus specifically on people at the station whose behaviour differs from a ‘typical passenger’. Instead of entering the station and heading to platforms, the ones I call ‘non-passengers’ do not ride the subway, do not arrive there by subway and remain at the station for long periods. To study the uses of space, I suggest an investigation framework that allows a focus on how these free access areas and their publicness are a product of these specific uses. The paper is based on Lefebvre’s dialectic assumption on space, particularly his analytical triad of ‘perceived’, ‘conceived’ and ‘lived’ spaces, and Frehse’s specific definition of uses (patterns of bodily behaviour and social interactions). I then investigate what the non-transit uses of non-passengers can reveal about the Sé subway station in downtown São Paulo by studying them in every aspect of Lefebvre’s triad, thus revealing conceived, perceived and lived uses of the station. Finally, I conclude that the ‘non-passengers’ use the station in similar ways to a public square and that the ‘publicness’ of this station lies in the relation of its non-transit uses with the Sé square placed above the station.