Routledge Handbook of Urban Public Space

Reviews / Votes

"This extremely smart and astute collection will be a valuable resource for anyone who delves into the complex subject of the use, design and management of urban public space worldwide. This timely and rich collection of theories and practices criss-crosses disciplines, spaces, scales, contexts and times. Combining classic, contemporary and forward-looking views of the public realm, it offers fresh perspectives on important elements and key topics of urban public space. This outstanding handbook will be of great interest to scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students of space and place."

Tigran Haas, Associate Professor of Urban Planning + Urban Design, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

"Franck and Huang take us on a world tour of public spaces, first, globally across five continents and second, typologically, exploring stories of how places have emerged and how they are used and managed. Some are big in scale and transformative - both permanent, such as China's new ecological parklands, and ephemeral, including Manhattan's street parades. Others are small in scale and local in impact - from the pitches (and struggles) of street vendors in Bogota to the sites (and displays) of Finland's Parkour traceurs. As successive chapters reveal, these range from joyous to tragic venues for the full diversity of everyday urban life; lives and spaces that are always important, as is the act of bringing them together into this must read collection for public space researchers."

Matthew Carmona, Professor of Planning and Urban Design, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK

"With the pandemic lockdowns, police brutality on the streets, and attacks on Asians in North American cities, public space today faces a renewed crisis. In light of these challenges, it seems counterintuitive that the editors of this volume, Karen Franck and Te-Sheng Huang, argue that public space is alive and well. But in many ways, they have a point.

With a global view that includes cases across eleven countries and five continents, the book reminds us of the wide range of public space uses that reflect people's creativity and engagement despite the challenges they face. This impressive, encyclopedic volume demonstrates that public space is made alive and well through the direct engagements of citizens, including acts of political resistance and everyday acts of play and gathering. These struggles and engagements are ripe for new scholarship and investigation."

Jeffrey Hou, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

"Public space is arguably one of the most used but least understood elements of our built environment. That is perhaps surprising, given that we all make so much use of public space in our everyday lives --from recreation to political protest. It is both this familiarity and the sheer variety of public spaces that makes understanding them so challenging. With this book, Karen A. Franck and Te-Sheng Huang have met this challenge with clear research and analysis and many examples of what actually takes place in a variety of public spaces and even in a variety of countries. Public spaces that are successful meet social needs. There is no single best way of doing that as Franck and Huang demonstrate with the many chapters they have collected for this edited volume. The Placemaking practitioner, the place researcher and the general reader have much to learn from this handbook."

David Burney, Academic Director, Urban Placemaking and Management Program, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, USA

"In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Public Space: Use, Design, and Management, Karen Franck and Te-Sheng Huang define public space broadly and include essays about public spaces in many different countries around the world. This handbook will be useful to citizens and leaders in local organizations, city planners, policy makers, and urban design educators-and their students, who will find instruction about research methods in the concluding chapter. As the founder of Body Conscious Design, which advocates for design at all scales that puts humans first, I especially appreciate the essays that attend to the senses in addition to vision-sound, smell, texture, temperature-in their discussions of public space."

Galen Cranz, Professor of the Graduate School, Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

"At first glance, you might say, "Oh no, not another book about urban public space"! However, upon looking more closely you would recognize how it differs from its predecessors in several ways. It is tightly organized around five kinds of activities that take place in urban public space in different cities around the world. Both the content of the book and its organization into thematic sections encourage the reader to consider each chapter individually and in connection to other chapters. All the chapters are based on careful empirical research that employed a variety of methods. In the final chapter the editors, Karen A. Franck and Te-Sheng Huang compare two basic approaches to conducting research: one that is highly systematic and the other that is more open-ended. This chapter will encourage critical thinking about the best ways to conduct research.

The book considers the continually evolving nature of urban public space globally and does so in a thoughtful manner, providing a valuable contribution to the existing literature. The editors have created a new lens that can broaden our way of conceptualizing and critiquing urban public space. The book underscores our need to question the spatial imaginary of what "should" take place in urban public space -- where, when and by whom. It will be a valuable contribution to existing research and a helpful guide to novices and experienced researchers alike."

Lynn Paxson, University Professor and Professor of Architecture Emerita, College of Design, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

"With wide ranging, original contributions based on empirical studies from eleven countries on five continents, this handbook emphatically demonstrates that urban public spaces are 'alive and well'. By supporting many functions -- from commerce to celebration, recreation to protests -- urban public space not only enhances the healthy functioning of cities but, equally importantly, enhances the quality of our lives on the increasingly urbanizing planet.

People-centered urban design requires that we continuously improve our understanding of the changing needs and preferences of urban dwellers in different parts of the world. This handbook is both important and easily accessible. It will guide academia and practice in urban design by deepening our understanding and appreciation of the challenges experienced in urban public places across the world as continuing climate change impacts our cities and our lives."

Taner Oc, Editor, Journal of Urban Design (Routledge); Emeritus Professor, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; Honorary Professor, University College London, London, UK

"The Routledge Handbook of Urban Public Space brings together a timely international collection of chapters that direct readers to a range of creative endeavors that city planners undertake to transform cities. The editors and contributors offer critical insights on how people adapt to, make, and utilize public city spaces."

Nicholas Wise, Arizona State University, for the Journal of Urban Affairs

"The book's broad spectrum of empirical research on uses of public space nudged me to look anew at the uses and users of public space, take note of the voluntary stewards, and begin formulating research questions. I learned about interesting, important, and well-documented aspects of public space use and was motivated to contemplate uses I had overlooked - what more could one ask of such a handbook? This Handbook documents communities' inventiveness in re-conceiving the boundaries and uses of public space, offering evidence that public space is 'alive and well' and continuing to evolve. It adds a valuable contribution to the public space literature including case studies of uses of public space, a nuanced argument about the scope of the term public space, and discussion of approaches to research."

Mark C. Childs, University of New Mexico, for the Journal of Urban Design