ABSTRACT
The twenty-first century has challenged the conventional image of public space as individualized open space—the park, plaza, and square. Public space is now being understood, appreciated, and explored as a complex, dynamic, physical, and social system in action. As capital has usurped traditional public spaces, many more marginalized actors such as minorities, youth, women, community groups and minor institutions have claimed public and quasi-public spaces dominated by infrastructure thus making the connection between public space and infrastructure even more apparent. The Urban Task Force appeals to the public sector to act as the custodian of the public realm. In their call for creating a network of open public spaces, the authors suggest the largest benefit—urban integration—provided by the web of connections generated through the network. Landscape and infrastructure are inextricably linked to public space. When integrated with hard infrastructure and landscape, they create a coherent socio-spatial structure the authors call the new ‘Commons.’.
