Public spaces
What makes a successful public place?
Contacts
How people use public spaces, and why these spaces are important to communities and regeneration.
The Government's 'Cleaner, safer, greener' policy agenda recognised the importance of improving our public open spaces. However, there has been a tendency to focus on design and management issues rather than what people value about public space or how they use different spaces.
The social value of places is not well understood, yet is relevant to a number of key issues, such as community relationships and how people form an attachment to an area, opportunities for people to engage with others and develop tolerance of diverse 'others', and opportunities for social inclusion. The way people interact in public spaces is also of interest to a number of policy agendas, including concerns over antisocial behaviour, social inclusion and community cohesion.
JRF's research programme sought to fill gaps in our understanding of how people use public spaces. It focused on:
- how people understand and perceive public spaces;
- how different people use these spaces in different geographic and social contexts;
- to what extent these places offer opportunities for positive contact between different cultures and lifestyles, and to what extent they are dominated by different groups;
- how local tensions play out in public spaces; and
- how stakeholders might be able to respond.
Key issues
- Successful public spaces rely on people using them. People make places.
- There is clear evidence of the importance of public spaces in successful regeneration policies and for creating sustainable communities.
- Spaces that successfully attract social activity are often banal in design, or untidy in their activities - such as street markets and allotments. Designers need to be responsive to the use of public spaces, not just aesthetics.
- Strategies to solve anti-social behaviour by moving it elsewhere are likely to be ineffective and risk worsening local tensions.
- Successful public spaces are inclusive, provide opportunities for social interaction and give users the ability to shape what happens there.
- It is important that local people are consulted about what they want from the public spaces in their communities if these places are to deliver their full promise.