ABSTRACT
Where is public space? Is it in designated areas, like main streets, squares and public
buildings? Is it in marginal, leftover spaces like abandoned lots, or even at the bound-
aries of legal accessibility? Perhaps public space is not a place, but situations for
engagement. This is a very old idea, as old as the city itself, with ‘polis’ in classical
Greece standing for a composite of urban fabric, its people and their culture. The
nature of public space in the contemporary city is more ambiguous and problematic.
Traditional ideas of commonality and shared ethos may be at the foundations of the
