Construction of public spaces in Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro: a comparative analysis of public projects during the 1990s

Abstract Since the 1990s, regeneration, renovation and revitalization projects of urban areas have been developed in several Latin American cities, based on the Barcelona model of strategic planning. It was the case of Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro, where local authorities promoted the creation of public areas in order to strengthen the democratic life and sociability among citizens. These projects were promoted mainly during the local government of Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa, in Bogotá, and Cesar Maia and Luiz Conde, in Rio de Janeiro. We compared the appropriation of the model in the two local contexts, based on an analysis of public investments and types of intervention projects in urban areas, aiming to examine the process of re-signification of this model at the local level.