This book challenges current views that public life is in decline and that contemporary urban design trends reliant on privatisation, control, events, and thematic designs are to be blamed. Drawing on detailed and extensive analysis of a case study that illustrates well such urban design trends, it shows that informal social life and interaction occur more than its necessary in new master planned environments and new designed public settings, whether public or private owned and/or managed. Furthermore, it reveals the existence of a new category of informal public social settings which it calls fourth places because of their close relationship to Oldenburg’s third places in terms of social and behavioural characteristics – radical departure from the routines of home and work, inclusivity and social comfort – but distinct in terms of activities, locations and spatial conditions – being characterised by spatial, temporal and managerial in-betweenness, i.e. indeterminacy in form, function and times, and a great sense of publicness.
The acceptance of these findings problematises well-established urban design theories about master planning, expands existing social theories about the optimal conditions for public social life by empirically and spatially elaborating on them and redefines several spatial concepts for designing public space in relation to the specific dynamics of informal social interaction. More importantly, it brings optimism to urban design practice, offering new insights into designing more lively and inclusive public spaces.
Author(s): Patricia Aelbrecht
Series: The Urban Book Series
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 253
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: Is Public Social Life in Decline and Are Contemporary Masterplanning and Public Space Design Practices to Be Blamed?
References
2 A Theorization of Informal Public Social Life and Interaction in Urban Public Space
2.1 The Essential Problems of Living and Interacting with Strangers
2.2 The Benefits of Meaningful Social Interactions
2.3 The Realm of Public Sociability: The Realm of Strangers and Spaces of Exposure
2.3.1 Defining the Public
2.3.2 Defining and Assessing Publicness
2.4 Theories from Urban Sociology
2.4.1 Negative Views: An ‘Overstimulating’ Public Life
2.4.2 Negative Views: An ‘Understimulating’ City
2.4.3 Positive Views: New Public Realms, Communities, and Forms of Interaction, Association, and Communication
2.5 Theories from Urban Design
2.5.1 Commodification and Privatization on Public Space
2.5.2 ‘Event City’: Events and Their Dual Role in Producing and Eroding Public Space
2.5.3 Contemporary ‘Placelessness’ and Its Impact on Public Space and Public Life
2.5.4 Summary
References
3 The Sociality and Spatiality of Social Encounters Among Strangers
3.1 The Sociology and Spatiality of the Public Realm
3.1.1 Types of Strangers
3.1.2 Types of Social Encounters with Strangers
3.1.3 Qualities of Social Encounters with Strangers
3.1.4 The Body Language of Social Encounters
3.1.5 Methodological Considerations
3.1.6 Accepted Optimal Settings and Conditions for Informal Public Social Interaction
3.1.7 Unaccepted and Under-Theorized Optimal Conditions for Informal Public Social Interaction
3.2 Theories and Concepts in Urban Design That Link with Sociology
3.2.1 Public Social Settings
3.2.2 Key Ingredients of Successful Public Space Design
3.2.3 Optimal Activities
3.2.4 Key Urban Design Qualities and Principles
3.3 The Park of the Nations [Parque Das Nações]
3.3.1 GO Station [Gare Do Oriente]
3.3.2 Oriente Square [Praça Do Oriente]
3.3.3 VG Shopping Centre [Centro Commercial Vasco Da Gama]
3.3.4 Alameda Boulevard [Alameda Dos Oceanos]
3.3.5 Rossio Promenade [Rossio Dos Olivais]
3.3.6 The Riverfront [Beira-Rio]
3.4 Summary
References
4 Observations on the Theorized Conditions That Support Informal Social Interactions in New Designed Public Spaces
4.1 ‘People-Watching’
4.1.1 Paths for ‘People-Watching’
4.1.2 Edge Spaces for ‘People-Watching’
4.1.3 Designing for ‘People-Watching’
4.2 Programmed Events
4.2.1 Large-Scale Programmed Events
4.2.2 Small-Scale Programmed Events
4.2.3 The Sociality and Spatiality of Programmed Events
4.3 ‘Thresholds’
4.3.1 Thresholds of Buildings
4.3.2 The Social Potential of ‘Thresholds’
4.4 ‘Open Regions’
4.4.1 Spatial Novelty and Diversity of an ‘Open Region’
4.4.2 Social and Spatial Mechanics in an ‘Open Region’
4.4.3 What Qualifies an ‘Open Region’?
4.5 ‘Triangulation’
4.5.1 ‘Triangulation’ with Props
4.5.2 ‘Triangulation’ at the Edges
4.5.3 ‘Triangulation’ at the Thresholds
4.5.4 The Spatiality of ‘Triangulation’
4.6 Summary
References
5 Observations on the Under-Theorized Conditions that Support Informal Social Interactions in New Designed Public Spaces
5.1 Circulation
5.1.1 The Station: A Busy but Convivial Circulation Space
5.1.2 The Square: The Best Waiting and Stopping Point
5.1.3 The Promenade: A Memorable Circulation Space
5.1.4 The Social and Interactional Potential of Circulation Spaces
5.2 Control
5.2.1 The Station
5.2.2 The Shopping Centre
5.2.3 The Park
5.2.4 What is Social About Controlled Spaces?
5.3 Congestion
5.3.1 Waiting Rooms
5.3.2 Ticket-Offices
5.3.3 Bus Stops
5.3.4 Building Thresholds
5.3.5 What is Positive Congestion?
5.4 Summary
References
6 ‘Fourth Places’: the Contemporary Public Settings for Informal Social Life and Interaction
6.1 Spatial, Temporal, and Managerial ‘In-Betweenness’
6.2 Thresholds
6.3 Edges
6.4 Paths
6.5 Nodes
6.6 Props
6.7 Publicness
6.8 Implications for Urban Design
6.9 Recommendations for Future Research
References
