For four years, photographer Hayahisa Tomiyasu spent each day staring out his window patiently observing the goings on of a courtyard adjacent to his bedroom. Over the days, months and years it transpired that residents and passersby seemed to naturally gravitate towards one particular ping pong table in the middle of…

A Feminist Spatial Researcher-in-Residence Model Young women have largely been left out of public space design and planning processes. There is a need for meaningful knowledge production to be centred on, and grounded within, this group. In this viewpoint, we propose and evaluate our feminist spatial researcher-i…

Since 2005, LSE Cities has run the Urban Age project, an international investigation of cities jointly organised with the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft. Through conferences, research and outreach, the Urban Age charts the diverse spatial, social, economic and political dynamics of global cities in different regions of…

Urban beautification campaigns are usually sold to local residents as a way to improve their daily lives. Design elements – from lighting systems to signs, benches, bollards, fountains and planters, and sometimes even surveillance equipment – are used to refurbish and embellish public spaces. Designers refer to these e…

Public spaces range in form from informal street corners to grand civic set pieces. At a larger scale, formal public spaces have long had an important role as the perceived centres of settlements of all types and as the focus for public life, activities and events. At a smaller scale, they might simply be somewhere to…

Mobility is intrinsic to the quality of life experienced in cities. But for the past century, the car has dominated how we plan and grow our urban areas. We must now seize the opportunity to place people back at the heart of our cities and drive a human focused approach to the design of the built environment. With a gr…