What makes or breaks the success of a public space?
Public spaces are an important pillar of any community. All around the world, as part of urban development and restoration efforts, they’ve formed a key part of every urban strategy worthy of note, with a clear focus on offering residents valuable places with real benefits. But now more than ever, their roles have shifted from purely recreational spaces to community hubs where events and creative initiatives take place.
For example, a recent public report by Gehl and the Knight Foundation showcased the importance of adaptive public spaces for people during and beyond the pandemic, looking at seven specific projects and how they “foster more equitable access and community resilience”, along with recommendations.
Where urban strategies are concerned, the main role of new (or repurposed) public hubs should be to bring the communities around them together, get them involved, and give back in a way that breathes new life into the urban space, much like we did when I headed the project for the Alba Iulia citadel (when we successfully transferred ownership over from the military to the local authority). The discoveries from this effect appraisal outline the power of the public space as a stage for the advancement of any given locality: regardless of whether by building citizen trust, prodding social action, supporting financial and labour force improvement, or becoming a catalyst for neighborhood change. As urban communities adjust to better approaches for living and working, city chiefs need to focus on open spaces — from the commitment stage to plan, development, programming and upkeep.
One glowing example showcased in the report is that of Detroit, where the Ella Fitzgerald park opened back in 2018, and 26 lots became a new community gathering place for people in the area. This is a great example of co-creation that arose from Detroit Planning Director, Maurice Cox's Fitzgerald Revitalization Project, announced in 2017, making it possible to take the park from a forgotten place to a modern hub, created between the planning department and the local community. Underlying the importance of people’s involvement as a best practice, resident stories about the place gave planners a pretty good idea on how to combine emotional value with practical usability, such as cookouts, pop-up bike repair clinics, dedicated Activity Days and so on.
In the context of smart cities, this report is a great source of inspiration for a good foundation to rethink public spaces, with a smart layer. How can these community hubs be made more efficient with technology and innovation? What are the key needs of locals, tech-wise, that can be met in a modern hub? How can city planners combine insightful community actions with innovations that can bring extra value to the urban area at large? I look forward to seeing what comes next.
