Studies of Urban Squares suggests a specific and fresh take on agorology - the study of urban squares. The approach is one of recording everyday life and focusing on different ways to describe and investigate the public life and space of urban squares. The book comprises four empirical case studies of squares focusing especially on the urban material culture and spatio-temporal changes of these squares. The squares are all located in the metropolitan and transnational Öresund region in Denmark and Sweden, a region that has gone through extensive transformations during the last couple of decades. The compilation of cases suggest different ways of addressing spatio-temporal aspects of the everyday life of urban squares, and helps us to see how the everyday life of squares plays an important part in the production of public space.

To attract investment and tourists and to enhance the quality of life of their citizens, municipal authorities are paying considerable attention to the quality of the public domain of their cities – including their urban squares. Politicians find them good places for rallies. Children consider squares to be playgrounds, the elderly as places to catch-up with each other, and for many others squares are simply a place to pause for a moment. Urban Squares as Places, Links and Displays: Successes and Failures discusses how people experience squares and the nature of the people who use them. It presents a ‘typology of squares’ based on the dimensions of ownership, the square’s instrumental functions, and a series of their basic physical attributes including size, degree of enclosure, configuration and organization of the space within them and finally based on their aesthetic attributes – their meanings. Twenty case studies illustrate what works and what does not work in different cities around the world. It discusses the qualities of lively squares and quieter, more restorative places as well as what contributes to making urban squares less desirable as destinations for the general public. The book closes with the policy implications, stressing the importance and difficulties of designing good public places. Urban Squares offers how-to guidance along with a strong theoretical framework making it ideal for architects, city planners and landscape architects working on the design and upgrade of squares.

This book, part of a series of four, offers a detailed analysis of urban design, covering the streets, squares and buildings that make up the public face of towns and cities. It outlines the theory of the principal features of urban design from which method is developed and provides a better understanding of the main elements of urban design. This includes the arrangement, design and details of the streets and squares, and the roles they play in city planning. This third edition includes chapters on "Sustainable Urban Design" and "Visual Analysis", introducing the latest theories and influences in the field and bringing greater practical significance to the book. Cliff Moughtin explores the street and square in terms of function, structure and symbolism and examines fine examples in their historical context. These are set against the background of the laws of urban design composition, culled from Renaissance and modern writers.

Twenty-four articles by experts in different fields focus upon medieval, Italian Renaissance, and modern African cities, industrialization in Europe, and the problems of urban America.

This report examines how different people use public spaces and analyses how social interactions vary by age, gender or place. A free pdf version of this report is available online at www.jrf.org.uk