Fear of spaces, spaces of fear. Anxiety, agoraphobia and other urban affects

From its earliest manifestations at the dawn of the industrial age, the modern metropolis has afforded urban subjects both unique opportunities for existence and affective states of fear and anxiety. If the practices of planning and urban design appear to have been characterized by a form of “emotion-blindness”, writers, poets, philosophers, painters and many other authors have indeed succeeded in describing these emotions as they unfolded in urban space. This essay provides a cross-continental metropolitan itinerary from the middle of the 19th century to our days, highlighting how the fear of space emerging with the modern city still inhabits the feelings of urban dwellers. Through our observations we argue that, unless spatial emotions are included as the subject matter of urban transformations, future cities and their inhabitants will continue to be “consumed” by fear and anxiety.