Remembrance to Repression: Public Space, memorial landscape and collective memory in post-WWII Vienna

In his influential work ‘On collective Memory’, French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs described an intrinsic relationship between the past and present, a reconfiguration of the perceived past through the lens of its current generation’s ideas and experiences. This represents an increasing challenge in the urban realm due to the growing amount of...

Do only the physical qualities of a public space influence the way it’s being used or the activities it hosts and do large-scale socioeconomic events of the past decade affect their function?: Human Activity in Public Spaces Before and During the Pandemic

The scope of this thesis is set to examine the immediate relation of a city’s public spaces to the daily life of its citizens and portray how this relationship evolves. The location under examination is the city center of Athens, Greece. Specifically, focus will be given on two major public squares, namely Syntagma square and Omonia square....