Truly Public Space.
Adapted from ‘People Make Places: growing the public life of cities’ by DEMOS.
The shared interaction and exchange that good public spaces enable provide us with experiences that are not possible in our immediate circle of family, friends and work colleagues. They can provide us with experiences of belonging, surprise, empathy, tolerance, status, companionship, learning, escape, autonomy and community. In this way public spaces act as a shared resource. A ‘public space’ is therefore anywhere that people can have these experiences rather than being defined on a plan by a local Council. As a result, in addition to the traditional parks, squares and streets, public spaces can also include allotments, libraries, car boot sales, skate parks and even supermarket cafeterias – quite simply anywhere that is a place for the public.
Because of the diverse values, motivations and needs that people hold, invariably they will seek different types of experience from public spaces. In fact participation in the public life of a town or city is far more complex than the absence of an admission fee or membership restrictions. Peoples ability and confidence to access and use public spaces is shaped by three primary issues; resources of knowledge, time and money; social norms that convey whom a particular space is for; and individual values.
This final issue tends to manifest itself in one of three ways. People are generally orientated towards either experiences that provide a sense of security, those that contribute towards inner-directed needs such as self-development or those that contribute towards outer-directed needs such as building self-esteem.
For the social and democratic promise of public space to be realised a town or city must provide a range of places that engage and serve all of its inhabitants. Some spaces are able to support a broader range of public experiences than other, while some spaces provide valued public experiences to an otherwise un-catered-for group of people. Understanding a town’s or a city’s network of public spaces is critical because if we want to reinvigorate their public life then we must improve the quality and range of public experiences that are available as well as the confidence with which people can access them.
Because of the diverse values, motivations and needs that people hold, invariably they will seek different types of experience from public spaces. In fact participation in the public life of a town or city is far more complex than the absence of an admission fee or membership restrictions. Peoples ability and confidence to access and use public spaces is shaped by three primary issues; resources of knowledge, time and money; social norms that convey whom a particular space is for; and individual values.
This final issue tends to manifest itself in one of three ways. People are generally orientated towards either experiences that provide a sense of security, those that contribute towards inner-directed needs such as self-development or those that contribute towards outer-directed needs such as building self-esteem.
For the social and democratic promise of public space to be realised a town or city must provide a range of places that engage and serve all of its inhabitants. Some spaces are able to support a broader range of public experiences than other, while some spaces provide valued public experiences to an otherwise un-catered-for group of people. Understanding a town’s or a city’s network of public spaces is critical because if we want to reinvigorate their public life then we must improve the quality and range of public experiences that are available as well as the confidence with which people can access them.
