ABSTRACT
Squares are places of social interaction, destinations for communal experiences and expression. Squares become depositories of a collective memory that evolve to being synonymous with a city, for example St Peter’s Square in Rome, Trafalgar Square in London or the Piazza del Campo in Siena. City squares are places where people want to gather, to celebrate and also to protest. The image of Tiananmen Square from 5 June 1989 of the lone peace demonstrator and the tank is still vivid, as is the gathering of Egyptians in Tahrir Square in 2011 to show solidarity with the Arab Spring anti-government protests. The Renaissance was the period of a classical revival in the arts, architecture and the creation of public squares. The location of these private squares served to give a hierarchy to the monetary values within the developments, as well as providing a spatial centrepiece.
