ABSTRACT
This Part presents a variety of analyses concerning the importance of public infrastructure and public space in urban regeneration, highlighting the interconnections between physical, social and economic aspects. Public infrastructure and use of public space are clearly highly important as elements within a broader context of urban regeneration (Tallon 2010). Clearly, effective and sufficient infrastructure, particularly related to transport, is essential given the reliance of cities on connectivity and mobility. And the prevalence and effectiveness of public space is often seen as a critical component of the liveability or desirability of urban districts, linked to contemporary notions of ‘place-making’ (Atkinson 2003; Akkar 2005; DCLG 2006; Gehl 2011). Indeed, in a broader sense, it is interesting to note the prevalence of measure of the effectiveness of (often transport) infrastructure as well as (often green) public space as proxies for wider amenity and quality of life, since these often feature as elements of a set of measures intended as estimates of the ‘desirability’ of global cities as places to live and work (Brenner and Keil 2005; Carmona and Wunderlich 2012). However, contemporary notions of effective public space are contested, with some calls for spaces that are more responsive to real public needs (Zukin 2009; Hou 2010).
