Principles for public space design, planning to do better

Public spaces range in form from informal street corners to grand civic set pieces. At a larger scale, formal public spaces have long had an important role as the perceived centres of settlements of all types and as the focus for public life, activities and events. At a smaller scale, they might simply be somewhere to rest, hang out, or play whilst providing a visual pause in the flow of streets through urban areas. They encompass everything from traditional squares, to incidental urban spaces, to a range of new sorts of spaces(e.g. Cho et al. 2016) that challenge our perceptions—physically, socially and in terms of their management—about what public spaces should be

What is clear is that since the 1980s, public spaces of all forms have witnessed a renaissance in that they have increasingly become a key component of many regeneration and development schemes (both residential and commercial), worldwide, with far-reaching impacts on how the resulting places are perceived and used (Crowhurst Lennard and Lennard 1995; Corbett 2004)

In such a context, it is vitally important to design public spaces well, although experience suggests that often our ambition is not met by the reality. When we do get them right, however, high-quality public spaces offer huge economic, social and environmental benefits to their localities and communities (CABE 2004a).

Read the research article (open access) here

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