The skateboarding as an intervention: temporary appropriation and identity in central Barcelona

Abstract

The Plaza de los Ángeles, colloquially called MACBA Square, is today an international reference for street skateboarding. As a public space of civic qualities inserted into a high complexity area, its temporal appropriation has motivated contrary reactions by the local community. Considering that the square already consolidated its identity based on that intervention, what concerns us is to analyze the role of the square space configuration in its temporary appropriation, and the spatial transformations generated by persistence of this practice over time.