Who Owns Public Space? Three Active Models of Shared Management Shaping Urban Commons in Europe and New York

"Public space is often understood as belonging to no one in particular, collectively accessible yet institutionally maintained, yet a growing number of initiatives are challenging this assumption by testing shared management and distributed ownership models. In Paris, Adoptez un banc introduces a sponsorship-based approach, allowing individuals and groups to support temporarily and symbolically claim responsibility for historic public furniture without compromising its collective use."

"The Adoptez un banc initiative in Paris introduces a patronage-based model for public space stewardship, using sponsorship as a mechanism to fund and maintain everyday architectural elements within the Jardin des Tuileries, managed by the Musée du Louvre since 2005 and visited by millions of people each year. Through this program, individuals or groups are invited to sponsor the restoration or reproduction of historic cast-iron benches originally installed in the Tuileries since the 19th century,"

Public space traditionally perceived as unowned and institutionally maintained is being reconfigured through experiments in shared management and distributed ownership. Paris’s Adoptez un banc uses sponsorship to fund restoration and permits symbolic stewardship of historic benches while preserving collective access. Community gardens under the Main Verte framework retain legal ownership with landowners but delegate daily management to citizen associations for food production and shared use. In New York, The Common Corner brings together public agencies, nonprofits, designers, and residents to co-produce public space within public housing. These approaches distribute care, authorship, and responsibility across citizens and institutions, strengthening local resilience.

Read at ArchDaily