Description
Book SynopsisIn the rapidly expanding public space debate of the past few years, a recurring theme is the 'loss of publicness' of contemporary urban public places. This book takes up the challenge to find an objective way to prove or disprove this phenomenon. By taking the reader through a systematic and multi-disciplinary literature review it asks the deceptively simple question: 'What is publicness?' It answers this by first developing a new theoretical approach - 'The dual nature of public space', and secondly a new analytical tool for measuring it - 'The Star Model of Publicness'. This pragmatic approach to analysing public space is tested then on three new public places recently created on the post-industrial waterfront of the River Clyde, in the city of Glasgow, UK. By seeing where and why certain public places fail, direct and informed interventions can be made to improve them, and through this contribute to the building of more attractive and sustainable cities. By adopting a multi-discipl
Trade Review’Public space is an integral ingredient of urban life, with a degree of complexity that requires multi-dimensional sensibility in theory and practice. Georgiana Varna insightfully approaches the subject by developing a new methodology for assessing the publicness of public spaces through five dimensions (ownership, control, physical configuration, animation, and civility), which are exemplified by three cases from Glasgow.’ Ali Madanipour, Newcastle University, UK
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction. Part I Conceptualising Publicness: The publicness of public space as a cultural reality: defining a standard for public space; The publicness of public space as a historical reality: understanding the real estate development process. Part II Modelling Publicness: The star model of public space: from theoretical construct to methodological tool. Part III Assessing Publicness: Glasgow's experience of waterfront regeneration and the creation of new public space; How public are Glasgow's public places? A case study of three waterfront sites: Pacific Quay, Glasgow Harbour and Broomielaw; 'A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step'. Annexes; Bibliography; Index.
