The open spaces have enormous importance for cities - even though they are often treated badly by public and private actors - they are spaces of everyday life, places of coexistence in several scales, preferred locus of political demonstrations and many other social practices. Open spaces, private or public, are the main elements that can provide environmental services in urban areas. It discusses the public importance of open spaces of Brazilian capitals and Brazilian metropolises nowadays. The paper presents concepts that not only allow better understanding of the subject and may be useful for the production of public policies really interested in improving the quality of urban spaces in cities and metropolises in Brazil.
Open spaces; public dimensions of space; public sphere; Brazilian metropolises; Brazilian capitals