Methodological Approaches to Reflect on the Relationships Between People, Spaces, Technologies

Lusaka, a city of around three million people, faces massive urban growth challenges. Designed on the Garden City planning paradigm principles, the city currently lacks open public recreational spaces. The lack of public space is often linked to the high land value alongside the high demand for housing, the lack of national government prioritization of public space provision policies, and a general lack of financial resources available to Lusaka's local council.This article explores the state of formal public spaces in Lusaka, its urban history, development patterns, and the effects of these factors on everyday life and social interactions. It also outlines different private sector attempts to make up for the lack of public spaces through the provision of private green spaces (e.g., green private entertainment centres, private play parks, private back yards, and front yards) and the commercial units and malls that cover some public space functions. It asks questions on where kids play (e.g., private play parks, mall play parks, etc.) and highlights the design elements preventing streets from becoming lively public spaces (e.g., walls and roads).The article also examines Lusaka's plans for creating green and open spaces networks inside the city and their applicability. It studies public space provision plans in Lusaka's Development Plan 2030 and older public space provision attempts. It highlights the urgency and the importance of taking serious steps towards public space provision in the city now. The article used field research, mapping, desktop research, and interviews.

Visibility is an important characteristic of public space. According to Brighenti, control and recognition can be understood as two opposing outcomes of visibility. These two modes are studied empirically through the use of data from a research project with young people in Brussels. This article zooms in on young people’s appropriation of a space for themselves and their negotiation of control and investigates what role (in)visibility plays in the micropolitics of these practices. It concludes that these regimes of visibility can be easily found in young people’s behavior in public space. However, they are not mutually exclusive: They easily transform into the other or present themselves simultaneously.

Padang City as a big city with a population approaching one million people has to address the issue of increased activities of the population and increased need for land and space for those activities. One of the effects of population growth and the development of activities in Padang is the decreasing number of open spaces for the outdoor public activities, both the natural and artificial public. However, Padang City has several open spaces that are built and managed by the government including 40 units of open spaces in the form of plansum parks, playgrounds, and sports parks, with a total area of 10.88 hectares. Despite their status as public open spaces, not all of them can be used and enjoyed by the public since most of them are passive parks, in which they are made only as a garden without any indulgences. This study was performed to assess the quality of public spaces in the central business of Padang City, namely Imam Bonjol Park (Taman Imam Bonjol). The methods of this study were done through several stages, which were to identify the typology of function space based on [1] Carmona (2008) and to assess the space utilization index based on the approach of Public Space Index according to Mehta [2] (2007). The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of space which is a public space in Padang City. The space quality was measured based on the variables in Good Public Space Index, the intensity of use, the intensity of social activity, the duration of activity, the variations in usage, and the diversity of use. The rate of the index of public space quality at Taman Imam Bonjol was determined by assessing 5 (five) variables of space quality. Based on the results of the analysis, public space utilization index was equal to 0.696. This result could be used to determine the quality of public space, in this case was Imam Bonjol Park was in Medium category. The parameters indicated several results including the lack of diversity in users’ activity time, less formation of social interaction between users, and the relatively short average of visitors’ duration in exploiting public space.

Social reproduction in France: Religious dress laws and laïcité

With the maturation and widespread adoption of digital technology, the integration of digital art into public spaces has emerged as a novel artistic design approach to enhance urban image. However, in the design and creation process, artists or designers often dominate, leading to a discrepancy between the artwork and the preferences or perceptions of the actual participants in public spaces, ultimately resulting in failure to achieve the desired outcomes. To design digital art installations in public spaces that attract user participation and interaction, it is essential to explore the mechanisms through which digital art influences public space design.To this end, the study first conducts a literature review to analyze the transformations under the mutual influences of digital art, public spaces, and users, thereby clarifying and defining the concepts and characteristics of digital art, public spaces, and users. Through this analysis, 15 design influence factors for digital art interventions in public spaces are identified, including scale, accessibility, and cultural-historical context. Subsequently, structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to investigate the relationships and relative weights of the influences of public spaces, digital art, and users on users’ willingness to participate, as well as the correlations and weights among the 15 influencing factors, such as scale, accessibility, and cultural-historical context. The findings reveal that public spaces, digital art, and users all have positive effects on users’ willingness to participate. Furthermore, the 15 influencing factors, including scale, accessibility, and cultural-historical context, not only affect public spaces, digital art, and users but also directly influence users’ willingness to participate. This study uncovers the complex interactions among digital art, public spaces, and users, providing theoretical support for the design and implementation of digital art in public spaces.

Bike-sharing systems are an important element in development of the smart cities and datasets from these systems are one of the ways to obtain large amount of information on bicycle traffic. These usually contain data on the origin and destination of each trip, as well as its time and duration. Alongside the basic data, some operators also provide information on the exact route picked by each user. This allows researchers to study stopovers, which may serve as a source of interesting information on human behaviour in public spaces and, as a consequence, help improve its analysis and design. However, using the raw data may lead to important errors because most stops occur in the vicinity of bike stations or are related to traffic problems, as evidenced by the case study of Cracow. The data filtering method proposed below opens up the possibility for using such datasets for further research on bike user behaviour and public spaces.

The success of interactive media architecture projects is contingent on the participation of the public. However, a fundamental question faced by designers of such systems is how open should their work be to public manipulation, while still providing adequate control so as not to compromise the design intent. This chapter take the position that control and freedom are negotiated constructions developed in real-time between the design’s intentions, the public’s desires for engaging it, and the existing protocols of behavior in public spaces. Questions that it poses include: What is information and how is it constructed? What is the relationship between control and freedom in interactive systems? What role can public participation play in its formulation? How can it be sustained? In response, it proposes an approach for underspecifying a design, in order to collectively construct both information and the public.

As the most visible expression of language in everyday life, the linguistic landscape (LL) captures the interplay of a community’s linguistic diversity, sociocultural dynamics, and underlying language policies. While there is growing interest in these dynamics in both global and national contexts, LL often goes unnoticed and underexamined in local contexts, such as public parks in Davao City, Philippines. Thus, this study explores the linguistic landscape of Davao City public parks, which plays a crucial role in shaping identity and social interaction in the city. The researchers examined the types of signs, the languages or codes present in the signs, and their functions within the nine parks across downtown Davao City. Employing qualitative content analysis, the findings reveal that top-down signs were structured and standardized, while bottom-up signs were informal and diverse. Regarding the codes, the signs were displayed in English, Cebuano, Filipino, Spanish, and Japanese, and were either monolingual, bilingual, or trilingual, serving both informational and symbolic functions. The interaction between the informational and symbolic functions of signs illustrates how language operates as both a tool for regulation and a marker of identity in public recreational spaces. The study highlights how signs serve both regulatory and identity functions in public spaces, thereby recommending the inclusivity of signage policies that enhance cultural representation, particularly of indigenous languages. This research contributes to the understanding of the role of multilingualism in public spaces, identity, and accessibility.

As China’s rural areas experience rapid population aging, traditional public spaces often fail to meet the specific needs of elderly people. This study addresses the necessity of age-friendly design to improve functionality and enhance the quality of life in rural communities. The study aims to provide suggestions for age-friendly rural public space design. The suggestions are based on seceral standaards used in the Chinese context, such as the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) and China’s age-friendly Community standards. It also explores whether spatial design can promote elderly social participation, health, and overall well-being. Using a qualitative approach, this analyses three case studiesin rural settings—Nanjing Pension Center, Chongqing Dongqiao Village, and Zhejiang Xikou Village. Data were collected through field observations, interviews, and literature reviews to identify key design elements and their impact on the elderly population. The study highlights the importance to include the following aspects into design of rural public spaces,i.e. accessibility, safety, comfort, social interaction, and digital infrastructure. It reveals that these elements, if carefully be addressed in public space design, are likely to help improve the quality of life for elderly people. Policy support, community-specific design, and active elderly involvement in the design process are considered to be essential tools for success.

The aim of NetPark was to test the potential for artists, researchers and developers to create an extensible and mobile experience that connects to public spaces as a dynamic locative experience. Additionally, the project aimed to explore the educational potential of Netpark by creating educational works in collaboration with local school children. As a funded R&D project, NetPark was a collaboration between the arts organisation Metal, the mobile app development company Calvium, and researchers at the University of Brighton. This report presents the process and results of creating a free public digital arts park in Chalkwell Park, Southend-on-Sea, where Metal has its base. Five artists were commissioned to create digital artwork to be experienced by the general public in the park, supported by Metal and Calvium. Jamie Gledhill created the augmented reality project ‘Talking Trees’ utilising the Junaio browser; Rosie Poebright created ‘ Run to Flight’ a locative audio app using GPS; Joel Cahen created ‘ The Oneironaut’ where users experience a narrated dream and contention of reality; Mark Grist and DJ Mixy (Michael Riccardi) created ‘ The Spoken Word Tours’ - a series of performance and musical works based on observations of park users, also including work with school children as performance poetry. Finally, Metal commissioned music duo Matmos to create a new sound work app, where the artists sampled sounds from the park and made new musical works. In addition to the commissioned artists, five local primary schools took part in a series of eight-week long workshops to create locative story apps for younger visitors to the park, in collaboration with professional authors and illustrators. The researchers at the University of Brighton’s School of Arts, Design and Media collected and analysed research material, including interviews and observations, that provided insights into stakeholder issues related to the project delivery, the perspective of makers on creating locative media art, the user experience of artworks in the form of locative media apps, and the educational aspect of creating works with schools. The key insights are: * NetPark is a creative response to the challenges local authorities face around public spaces and parks, drawing on opportunities of the digital and creative economy, to establish a process for artistic and educational creation as well as stakeholder engagement. * NetPark shows how the combination of the park setting park with digital, mobile and locative technologies facilitates new user experiences and engages new audiences. * Engaging local school children in locative media creation for NetPark has a range of educational opportunities and benefits. * Understanding the user experience and the educational opportunities of NetPark can inform further engagement with diverse communities. * Curating and maintaining NetPark is an important part of its strategy and follows the setting-up process. * The NetPark Toolkit contains guidance and resources on the process of commissioning, producing and maintaining both locative digital art works and locative educational digital works in public outdoor spaces. * The NetPark projects makes a contribution to the long-term development of public space in a digital age.

Urban Streets between Public Space and Mobility

Prolonged sedentary behaviour in public spaces amplifies cardiometabolic and musculoskeletal risk. This Resources, Frameworks, & Perspectives article introduces MyActiveBench, a modular “standing–sitting” bench that converts waiting time into light activity. Core elements include an angled support activating trunk muscles and QR code linking to micro-workout videos. Policy implications encompass quotas for movement-supportive furniture in zoning and park standards, fiscal incentives for private developers, and prioritized deployment in underserved areas to address inequity. A designer-led research agenda advocates theory development around “movement affordance density”, living-lab protocols combining inertial sensors with ecological momentary assessment, and equity-centred co-design of culturally resonant cues. Open-access data repositories and transdisciplinary funding are essential to accelerate replication and meta-analysis. Environmental and economic data support long-term viability in diverse climatic regions. Subsequent deployment studies should test cross-cultural appeal and adherence. Active seating represents a globally scalable, evidence-informed urban-furniture intervention capable of operationalizing physical-activity objectives while advancing social and environmental sustainability. Designers, policymakers, and public-health researchers share responsibility for institutionalizing such innovations.

<p><strong>Third spaces, the in-between of school and home, hold high value for teenagers giving them the space to develop independence and identity while they’re in an in-between time in their lives. However, teens inhabiting public space are often regarded with suspicion by adults, and there is a shortfall of supportive, sheltered and socially safe destination third spaces for teens in Wellington, made worse since the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake triggered the closure of the Central Library and Readings cinema complex. By not actively designing teens into the city, we are effectively designing them out. Rangatahi, teenagers and young people, are underserved by the city, and they don’t hold the social or economic power that would allow them to influence the change they deserve. And so this research asks: how might a social design practice operate as advocacy and activism to support teens? How can rangatahi be given the agency to design-themselves-in to public space?</strong></p><p>This research is situated in the discipline of social design, and uses a research-through-design methodology, informed by the collaborative, community centred design approaches of co-design and Tactical Urbanism. A social design practice was explored and developed throughout the research, learning how to adapt to the needs and desires of rangatahi, and make space for them to share their experiences and just be themselves. The design response centred process over a design ‘outcome’, to experiment with creative tools and methods (including workshops, public events and surveys) for engaging with Wellington teens and rangatahi, in order to learn from their lived experience, and invite them to a collective re-imagining of a better future city. Key findings, such as: a desire for social safety, accessible and adaptable physical spaces, care for sustainability and green spaces, and the value of social interaction, were made evident through the community engagement. These learned perspectives were actioned and amplified through submissions to the Wellington City Council—community voices turned into community impact. The research developed an advocacy and activism led social design kaupapa for working with teens, that centres them in the design process, and works to advocate for their needs. This social design kaupapa challenges the power structures of traditional design processes, by changing who gets designed-in, how design plays out, and the role of the designer.</p>

The author described authentic sacred objects on the example of pilgrimage routes in Lower Bavaria and Transcarpathia, and offered a virtual pilgrimage to German and Ukrainian sacred sites. The researcher recreated the sacred routes in Lower Bavaria on the example of the city of Passau and the village of Sammarei, Transcarpathia, to attract attention to cataloging pilgrimage sites, preserving authenticity, restoration, and creating virtual sites with recreated tourist routes for people with disabilities and young people who often prefer online travel to physically going there and visiting. Digital catalogs, interactive maps, development of digital catalogs, virtual booklets with QR codes, online presentations, and online lectures can become a powerful virtual tool for preserving sacred monuments and the memory of them in the public space. The pilgrimage to Lower Bavaria made it possible to borrow the structure and organization of pilgrimage in Ukraine, as the institutionalization of pilgrimage at the regional level is quite relevant, especially with the rapid development of digital technologies in the modern media space.

This paper examines the conditions for facilitating ‘light’ social interaction in public spaces in an urban renewal project in Delft, the Netherlands. The goal of this paper is threefold. First, using the concept of ‘public familiarity’, it offers a discussion of the value of public spaces and superficial interactions in relation to urban renewal and the aim of social mixing. Second, it discusses the implications for the design and programming of three types of public space: a park, a shopping street and a semi-public ‘living deck’. Third, it offers insight into the pitfalls as well as the added value of collaborative research (integrating research and practice). The researchers and professionals collaboratively gathered quantitative and qualitative data through a mixed-methods approach (observations, on-site mini-interviews and walk-along interviews), in order to engage professionals actively in the research project and thus promote their involvement with the neighbourhood and its residents. Based on data on the use, experiences and needs of residents in relation to the public spaces in their neighbourhood, the paper examines which elements are important for facilitating ‘light’ social interactions. The implications are important for thinking about how to facilitate social mix, and for the design and management of public spaces.