Public space is where all citizens, regardless of their income and personal circumstances, can feel both equal and cared for. Urban public space has long been a subject for debate, and the COVID-19 pandemic has sharpened this discussion considerably. People confined to their homes suddenly began to appreciate the true value of public space, and its contribution to the quality of urban life. As a recent United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) study emphasised, “public space is where all citizens, regardless of their income and personal circumstances, can feel both equal and cared for”. The 2015 Eurobarometer survey on European cities indicated that satisfaction with the availability of green spaces and public spaces was the strongest correlate with overall life satisfaction, ahead of public transport and healthcare, for example. Cities such as Barcelona have sensibly prioritised the expansion and development of public spaces, exemplified most recently by the “superblock” programme, which creates new squares and green spaces, and prioritises pedestrians. However, even with new public spaces, pressures of use continue to grow. Increased mobility and more active and fragmented lifestyles lead to growing numbers of city users—more commuters coming into the city to work, more day visitors and tourists, and the temporal extension of leisure activities into the “night-time economy”. This expansion of users makes designing and managing public space more complex. Cities need strategies to develop, manage and valorise their public spaces, for the public good. This requires a proactive process of placemaking: a conscious effort to make places better to live in, for all users of the city. Read the full article on Public Space Author: Greg Richards Recommended by Sebnem Hoskara

Urban Animators: Living Laboratory (UA:LL) was a public art research project that actively engaged with the RMIT University  New Academic Street capital works project, undertaken at the Melbourne city campus from 2015-2017. The construction site and the surrounding campus were envisaged as a living laboratory encouraging research that engaged with the internal infrastructure, process and community of RMIT University.As curator of the UA:LL public art program I created a framework that encouraged collaboration, provocation, solidarity and exchange amongst RMIT University students, staff and alumni.  This was achieved through the process of open expression of interests, learning and teaching, invited artists and industry research partnerships all resulting in public artworks embedded in the construction zone. The artistic installations included public artworks on construction hoardings and projections within the constriction zone that positively activated the site condition and helped mitigate the disruption occurring on the campus.As a curator, artist and designer I proposed a spatial curatorial proposition to the city via a public art installation titled ‘Gantry Section D’ as part of the UA:LL program. ‘Gantry Section D’ was the result of an intensive period of practice based investigation into the condition created when a city is undergoing transformation. Vol. 3 No. 1 (2018) Keywords: Urban Animators: Living Laboratory, RMIT University, yellow and black stripe, URBAN AGENCY

On November 24 - December 5, 2022, Museo Spazio Pubblico hosted the third edition of the Film Festival Urban Visions, Beyond the Ideal City, promoted by City Space Architecture in the framework of A-Place.Linking places through networked artistic practices, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. Museo Spazio Pubblico hosted screenings of a curatorial selection of all films in competition (available for free during the days of the Festival on the streaming platform visioniurbane.stream), the screening of two films out of competition, such as "Gionatan con la G" with the Italian director Gianluca Santoni and "Terre Mutate" with Italian director Alessandro Marinelli, the Italian premiere of the Ukrainian film “What Shall We Do With These Buildings?” by Jonathan Ben-Shaul and a talk to discuss the short film La città dentro with Anna de Manincor. The week after the Festival, Museo Spazio Pubblico hosted a workshop and a series of screenings of independent films produced and distributed by OpenDDB, such as: \- IMPA the city, by Diego Scarponi (2020) \- La pancia verde, by Ferdinando Amato (2021) \- La bataille de la Plaine, by Sandra Ach, Nicolas Burlaud, Thomas Hakenholz (2020) \- Sarura, by Nicola Zambelli (2022), 80 minuti \- Confine | Umanità, by Sara Del Dot, Carlotta Marrucci (2020) \- Shuluq, by Martina De Polo (2018) \- #387, by Madeleine Leroyer (2019) \- Ghiaccio, by Tomaso Clavarino (2019) All events were open to the public and free of charge. The trailer of the 2022 edition of the Urban Visions Film Festival is an art work by Gianluca Abbate.

The form of the city is intimately related with democracy. This is the thesis of the European Prize for Urban Public Space which, since 2000, has recognised and publicised the processes of transformation and improvement of public spaces in Europe. Cities are far from being an idyllic paradise. Now, when more than half the world’s population lives in urban environments, cities are facing threats that raise serious doubts about their future. Europe which, throughout history, has created cities that are exemplary in terms of density, human scale and complexity, is no longer exempt from these risks. Exorbitant growth, social and spatial segregation, neglect of outlying areas and predominance of the private vehicle are some of the problems that presently endanger the ideals of equality and freedom, which have been associated with the European city since its very beginnings. Fortunately, however, Europe also offers many admirable examples of improvement in its public spaces. These are works which, sensitive to their context, value the political and social dimensions of urban spaces. They look respectfully back to the past while also holding out sustainable solutions with future generations in mind. They embody good practice in taking care of the limits of the city since they do so in the awareness that peripheral zones are part of its identity and that contact with nature, and with water, is a resource that must be conserved and integrated, in the best interests of everyone. These are proposals that understand public space as a place for equality, redistribution of resources and recognition of minorities. They are interventions that give priority to access over barriers of every kind, and encourage appropriation of the city by its citizens. From Glasgow to Istanbul, and from Lisbon to Bucharest, the European Prize for Urban Public Space has become a privileged observatory of the problems and solutions which have now come to characterise European cities.

Dense housing settlements and high-rise blockades without sight of green is one of the disadvantages of urbanisation. While urban living continues to offer many opportunities such as jobs and services, urban green is a vital component in any urban ecosystem. Urban green spaces include parks, fields, gardens, urban forests and wetlands providing ecosystem services, including climate regulation, food and opportunities for recreation. The 2018 ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Strategy (ASUS) report showed that the resource footprint of the region’s cities is expanding. The annual growth of ASEAN’s urban population grew by around three percent annually, but the rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased by 6.1 percent. Many ASEAN cities are also among the world’s cities most exposed to natural disasters and environmental concerns, particularly from rising sea levels as a result of climate change. And rapid urbanisation is only exacerbating the risk of these disasters. Compromised ecosystems significantly upset the livelihoods and food security of local communities. Southeast Asia has the highest urban ambient air pollution levels worldwide with an annual mean level often exceeding five to 10 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) limits. Nonetheless, Southeast Asia continues to build. Open spaces and old buildings are making way for expressways, modern offices and apartment towers to accommodate ever-growing populations while magnifying the harmful effects of the urban sprawl. According to the WHO, green urban areas facilitate physical activity and relaxation; a lack of which has contributed to an estimated 3.3 percent of global deaths. Green spaces in cities are beneficial for human well-being. Read the full article on The ASEAN Post Author: Liyana Hasnan Recommended by Stephanie Cheung

University campuses offer unique environments rich with opportunities to test, challenge and innovate. Yearning for possibilities of social interaction and the need for better, livelier public spaces on campus, students from the Master of Urbanism Studies program at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden have facilitated Placemaking Week on campus for two consecutive years. The tools of placemaking were put into action as students organized the inaugural Placemaking Week at KTH. The project was collaborative by nature in every aspect of the process, challenging the students to navigate the complex interplay between public and private actors. To achieve the partnerships necessary to initiate Placemaking Week, stakeholder’s strategic drivers and potential roles were defined early in the process. All influential stakeholders were engaged, as understanding their concerns and working with them created strategic partnerships which otherwise may have acted as obstacles. These partnerships were important to the program’s sustainability, co-producing a long-term strategy together with the stakeholders as the cohort of students change each year.Through the approach and execution of each Placemaking Week, the potential of placemaking as a tool to foster community was assessed, formally studied and documented for learning purposes. The results of this study demonstrated that space could be made livelier and provide better opportunities for people to spontaneously interact, even with stringently limited time and resources. Further, Placemaking Week has provided content for the campus plan and contributed to building a trust-based relationship among stakeholders. With each year, the implementation process enables these relationships grow. Finally, the recurrence of Placemaking Week, which has been executed for the third year in a row, shows positive signs of embedding itself in the campus and student culture. Vol. 4 No. 4 (2019) Keywords: placemaking, bottom-up, public participation, sustainability