Based on a field survey on the conflicts regarding the extension of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, this text discusses the production of public space. These controversies make possible an understanding of the production process of peri-urban space in terms of residential aspirations and negotiation mechanisms. This investigation allows us to understand the articulation of the two forms of public space – as publicity and as a set of freely accessible places – and the questions of local democracies related to them.