ABSTRACT
There is a shared consensus that to overcome ethnic cultural differences and to achieve social cohesion demands regularity of everyday social encounters with strangers and that public spaces play an important role in achieving this. Much research has attempted to identify the places and qualities that can support social cohesion. However, little attention is given to the emergence of new types of public spaces that are not truly public but are nevertheless becoming very popular social spaces. This is the case of the new designed public spaces of consumption, circulation and recreation. It is precisely this knowledge gap that provides the impetus for this chapter. To do so, it examines a well-regarded new designed neighbourhood in Lisbon, Portugal. It focuses on the spaces of social encounter in its new types of public spaces to understand the qualities that make them popular. It reveals that such environments can bring new knowledge on the role of urban design in framing social cohesion. It demonstrates not only that these spaces are not necessarily dead, rigid and unchangeable entities but also, and more importantly, that they are sociologically more open for a diversity of users, creating and sustaining new forms of social cohesion.
