PS - public space research

'PS - public space research' offers research on the production, use, past and future of material public spaces, with a focus on the role of design and designers. It is a response to a growing anxiety about the increasing privatisation of public space, and the demand for greater democratic authorship and ownership of it. This requires a wider and deeper examination of the neglected roles of the designer and design, which are as important to a discussion of the public realm as the debate about who constitutes ‘the public’.

PS hosts research material from a three-year AHRC-FAPESP research project, 'Public Spaces and the Role of the Architect: a comparative study of influential modernist and contemporary examples in London and São Paulo'. It is intended to serve as a resource for scholars and students researching in the same subject area.