Public Space project

Option 1. Public Realm Project, Liberties Local Area Plan

Option 2. Animating Public Space

‘Progressive era reformers believed that public space could provide a shared set of symbols, sites
and experiences that counterbalanced the centrifrugal effect of private priorities”
‘Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatization of Public Space’ Margaret Kohn, 2004

Our cities are constantly evolving, and our attitudes, conceptions use of and access to public space shifts and changes. Ideally public space is seen as a site that animates our sense of community, public interest and allows people to congregate and mingle. However public space is often seen as
contested space where a multitude of different interests compete for attention; commercial interests, government interests, local interests. It has become at times a tightly controlled and alienating an extension of consumer space. Public space can be managed to specifically exclude certain groups such as homeless or young people. At any rate it is under very close surveillance for everyone.


Both projects deal with Public space (obv!) So I'm going to begin my research by looking into what is public space, and how have other artists dealt with interveening with public space.