The Space of the (Re)Public
Editorial
In October 2011 a group of around 2000–3000 protesters gathered around Paternoster Square in London, shrouded in the shadow cast by St Paul’s Cathe…
Athens Report: a collective archive of life and protest
– Christina Petkopoulou
athensreport.org is an interactive digital platform that maps the urban space through the route of trolley bus No. 11. It collects and archives vid…
A little island on Pier 55: urban austerity and the eclipse of publicly made public space?
– Anthony Maniscalco
They say history is written by the winners. When public space is constructed and regulated at the behest of park conservancies, public-private part…
Rooftop of the Total Palace
– Sonja Jankov
Total palaces were built all over socialist countries mostly during the 1980s, although examples can be found in prior decades. Originating from sp…
Coopelluvia: facilitating urban water commoning
– Stephanie Newcomb
Southern California—specifically Los Angeles—is no stranger to water scarcity. To sustain a growing population, a hyper-centralized infrastructural…
Pocket parks as spaces of “Re-public”: the experience of the Alexandrou Svolou initiative
– Spilios Iliopoulos and Michaela Loukia Litsardaki
It is very common in modern cities to find, within the urban fabric, forgotten/neglected parts,which are pieces of land that have either been abandoned in relation to an earlier…
A street-explorative and interactive-designing laboratory
– Elisa Privitera and Filippo Gravagno
The current state of participatory planning in Italy tells us that, until now there are few aware and empowered experiences of urban transformative processes…
To be in a good place
with Kevin Bennett, Fellow at the Center for Urban Design and Mental Health
I am fascinated by the link between biophilic design and well-being. The research linking green spaces and mental health is compelling…
Space activation and re-territorialisation
– Patrick Foong Chan and Camilla Lade
“Space Activation and Re-Territorialisation” examines how alleyways and lanes are transformed through the current trend of space activation. Furthe…
The (market-) state of the “public”: reappropriating the urban as common(s)
– Melissa Harrison
Over the past decades, intensified following the 2008 financial crisis, we have witnessed geographically and qualitatively diverse assaults on the …
Tusheti, Georgia
– Benjamin T. Busch
Glyphs crawl and scrawl over
ambivalent flux
History reddened with
wine and blood
Playscapes in the city of Larissa: a participatory design approach engaging architects, children and adults
– Eliki-Athanasia Diamantouli and Athina Fousteri
In 1989, the United Nations (UN General Assembly, 1989) established the children’s right to play. As a result, cities and municipalities became responsible to fulfill this need…
Regenerative Cultures – Regenerative Cities
Call for Submissions
closing 31.05.2020
The evidence that human activity is the cause of climate change is overwhelming. An ever-increasing number of institutions, from the UN to local go…
Let us read your stories
Preface
In a bid to explore novel and unconventional ways of narrating the city and relating to its lived experiences, we are launching an ongoing call for our Letters from the City section.
Does the city have the right to disregard children? The role of children in contemporary Kathmandu, Nepal
– Brinda Shrestha
The urbanization trend in modern Kathmandu, Nepal, as in other developing Asian cities, is broadly scrutinized as the result of an aftermath of un…
From the emergence of urban lighting to a new culture of consumption: department stores and the public life of women
– Nina Margies
The first public lighting system that was centrally organised and legally standardised emerged in France at the end of the 17th century. It was…
Institutional housing policies and habitation practices of the refugees arriving in Volos, Greece, in 1922
– Antonis Antoniou
In September 1922, following the destruction of Smyrna in the same year, a major wave of refugees came to the city of Volos. The crowds were initially…
The street market as animated space: an ethnographic exercise
– Christopher Adan
Sayed wears a red windbreaker and looks me straight in the eyes. His stall is replete with duvet covers, pillows and mattress foam. Originally from…
Building blocks of Brotherhood and Unity
– Donagh Horgan
Tito’s break with the Soviet Union in the early 1950s paved the way for Yugoslavia1 to forge its own developmental strategies, based on a return to…
Letter from Rome
– Patrick Düblin
Walking along Via Prenestina in the east of Rome, we are approaching a yellow brick building behind a lonely roundabout. Its shutters are down, the…