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This article examines the evolution of public spaces in the light of changes which overturned the previously established urban order of the modern town which took for granted a set of rules applicable to any urban space stipulating a fairly precise distinction between public and private spaces. However, today’s insular urbanism is characterised by the proliferation of what we propose to call micro-orders, a term which indicates spaces subject to sui generis rules concerned with specialisation of use and property rights. Based on a study essentially focused on the Mexican metropolis, this article offers a synthesis of those transformations which have marked the shift from the urban order of the modern town to the mico-orders of the insular town.