Public Realm

As cities pivot to embrace or resist a digital age and come to terms with an unfolding ecological crisis, they have new opportunities to rediscover their public and open spaces as connectors in human and environmental networks that can respond to global change with imagination and agility. This chapter considers the public realm in three ways in which urban actors ascribe value – as economic assets, as arenas for sociability, and as spaces for human health and wellbeing. These in-between spaces are frequently regarded in public policy as a liability to be managed, cleaned, and controlled rather than enjoyed and celebrated. By foregrounding these interstitial spaces, it should be possible to sketch out some futures for city centres that permit a realignment of urban priorities, valuing the fluidity of human interactions and the permeability of ecological networks alongside and encroaching into the solid material of streets, squares, and buildings.