“A good city is like a good party — people stay longer than really necessary, because they are enjoying

themselves”

— Jan Gehl

With the advent of the new Gen Z and new technology has led to new ways of living. The public spaces
of yesteryear like churches have been exchanged for shopping malls. Some types of spaces like parks
have not changed that radically.

Public space is a requisite of urban living especially today when politics divides us, and technology
isolates us as it is where people from different walks of life come together and connect. These spaces
are used for recreation and lead to community creation.

Public spaces must be designed to as flexible as possible in use and allow for different user groups to
access the space in different ways. To attract audiences and create connections to the space, the space
must be programmed with activities to allow different unique experiences to the public. The idea of
‘sociality and sociability’ is important in the public sphere. It is the interactions people have in the public
space and about the connection this forms between the person and the space. This might include the
social networks people form on the street or city squares. Creating an opportunity for people to meet
new people in the public space is important because this adds to the sociability of public space. Having
social events in the public space such as music concerts or hosting movies are also a great way to get
people to engage with one another. This creates an intricate connection between the space and the
people in it forming a sense of ‘togetherness’ in the space.

The younger generation, a key audience for public space, spends lots of time online, so leveraging social
media tools is increasingly important. The Web and social media tools can be used to attract audiences
and providing Wi-Fi is a prerequisite. As designers, we need to be sensitive to the whole emotional
range of people and need to be open to communities expressing anger, frustration, and other negative
emotions, but also respecting the public space. These spaces can be set up for electricity and water so
there is inherent flexibility.

In terms of public space design, there is now a move towards pseudo-public spaces like shopping malls
therefore these privately-owned public spaces (POPS) is where the future of public spaces is heading. An
implication of PoPs is lapses in equity, justice and wellbeing and the balance of capitalist interests with
urban planning. While they are accessible to the public, the public still does not have the same rights as
they would in a public space.

New forms of public space can also come from reusing old buildings and even reconceiving the concept
of a monument. The history of monuments is usually linked to a specific history, a special story from a
certain time. The new idea of a monument is “not born with purposefulness, they can be a carrier, a
monument of the moment, and can accumulate stories.”

Another form of public space activation is the creation of temporary public spaces by festivals, weekly
markets and so on. These temporary activations are “iterative placemaking” that enable city planners
and designers to “respond more quickly to the social dynamism of cities.” Instead of going through a
lengthy planning process that may not even work, a physical demonstration project can quickly be put
up to “test which programs are going to work” and bring a variety of programs to the public. The short-
term uses of old buildings and sites can co-exist with long-term planning for these locations