The city, is a system of functions, composed of individual elements, with the dominant one, the public and private space. These two elements together create one of the most crucial dipole relation in architecture.
These two elements do not follow parallel or consistent evolution in the physical space, but there is an 'eternal controversy' between them. This 'war' of sovereignty between the public and the private space isn’t restricted to the real world, but is also consolidated in the imaginary, future world of the science fiction movies. Technology and digitality have already created a new urban environment, with unclear and intangible boundaries, which leave much room for the redefinition of the ‘private-public’ dipole.
The present research aims to find a response to the ‘eternal battle’ through the science fiction movies.
Science Fiction is often regarded as a prophet for the future of society and the ‘materialistic’ city. But it is not just a projection of the modern world, a picture of what is being projected in the future.
This future seems to be already the case. Technology already owns many parts of our lives. The new ‘materialistic’ space that technology has created, is well-known as the digital one. This intangible network, inevitably influences the traditional functions of public space and the role of the private one. Socio-economic tensions make urban space ‘uncontrollable’ and ‘unpredictable’.
Through the analysis of the science fiction films and the summary of all the examples and images that give us about the concepts of urban space, such as the private space- 'shelter', the street and the square, research leads to the conclusion that the endless conflict between the public and private space, the predominant seems to be the private one. Learning from the imagination of the Science Fiction, we must protect both our shelter and the public space, the ‘hive’ of human socialization.