Squares have had a long tradition in history. They are different types of meeting places where people come together on the basis of common interests. The specifically personal nature of these interests can vary from one event to another.

In our present-day society the meaning of the square is changing as media and communication techniques develop. In addition to the conventional squares and meeting places, new meeting points, described by Marc Augé as ‘non-places’, are being created. These new concentration points arise not so much on the basis of social commitment but more from certain corresponding needs. To an increasing degree we are spending our time in supermarkets, on highways, in airports or in front of the television, computer, video games, cash dispensers and the like. This invasion of ‘non-places’ is resulting in a profound alteration of consciousness. It is something that we perceive but only in a one-sided, incoherent manner. This development is a phenomenon of the modern age.

Via an accessible, interactive internet site The Global Square Index provides a growing survey of the existing squares in the world and a summary of the characteristic historical and socio-cultural significance of each square. This survey continues to expand as more information comes in from visitors to the website, located anywhere from St. Peter’s Square in Rome to the commons of Brønbyvenster, Denmark. The Global Square Index maps out the relationships and distinctions of conventional squares, blessed with monuments and all sorts of social life, and the so-called ‘non-places’.

The Global Square Index is accessible to anyone. Visitors are invited to obtain information
(texts, photographs, maps) on existing squares or ‘non-places’ and/or to add new items, real or imagined, each with a distinct meaning. Concepts for new squares or interventions in existing ones can be proposed via the site; criticism of specific situations can be made, and visitors can express their opinions about sketches of the various squares. This gives rise to the possibility of exchanging views on plans, uses of art and architectonic ideas, adding designs to existing or imaginary squares and ‘non-places’ or revising given (also virtually designed) situations.

By means of new media and communication techniques, the public domain is redefined.
The internet is an open meeting place, which once began as a non-commercial haven for the exchange of information and knowledge. During the mid nineties, the medium became a hype: it would promote democracy and freedom. Has that proved to be an illusion, now that the internet is an established part of our day-to-day reality and this medium inundates us with solicited and unsolicited information?

The Global Square Index distills this network into a concentrated and tangible community due to its formulated context. On the basis of the open, interactive construction of the website, new and yet unknown areas can be explored. The Index provides insight into the far-reaching effects of modernization in society and into how this relates to the human need for points of contact. Just as the ‘non-places’ come about in an arbitrary manner, The Global Square Index gives rise, in a fairly organic way, to a new square on the internet: The Global Meeting Place, where personal thoughts, desires, dreams, ideals and passions reflect the current time in a (yet) virtual montage of architecture, design, uses of art, enlivened with performances, concerts, and other social events.

This is a point of encounter from which photographs, music, films, home videos (jpg/mpg downloads) and so on can be exchanged or where people can speak with others (chatting / sms). Real time/world-wide functions are an important aspect of the possibilities. Via mobile phone (sms / gps / bluetooth), webcam, laptops (airport / bluetooth/ internet) in the internet café or at the office, The Global Meeting Place can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Fantasy and reality can converge via both conventional and innovative media-related phenomena. The immense flow of information, the linking of one new technique with another, forces us in two directions: it alienates us but also connects us. These developments should be perceived within a human scale.

The Global Square Index is a socio-cultural experiment. A virtual public space is created, and through the course of time, it will become evident whether the same laws, norms and values as those in the real public environment apply here as well and, if so, how they will be put to use.

This ideal meeting place takes shape as the subjective sum of parts – collected, interpreted and designed by an international group of visitors (site participants), who have come together arbitrarily, each on the basis of a personal motivation. Not one ego, not a select elite, but a global collective becomes the interdisciplinary designer of the public domain as Gesamtkunstwerk:
The Global Meeting Place.

Email your suggestions, plans, uses of art and architectonic ideas, adding designs to existing or imaginary squares and ‘non-places’ or revising given (also virtually designed) situations;
send us images (max. 300dpi, 1800 pixels, 15x10 cm) of your ideal square,
your imaginary dream place to GlobalSquareIndex@syndicaat.org

SOH12 the Global Square Index is a project by Alex Vermeulen, Syndicaat