This document discusses the public realm in cities. It defines public realm as shared communal space like parks, plazas, pathways, and streets. Public spaces influence city form and function through daily community interactions. The aim of public realm is for individuals to experience place together as a community, either directly or indirectly participating in public life. Examples of public realm components discussed include streets, parks, plazas, and art in public spaces. Properties like imageability, accessibility, meaning, continuity, choice, and flexibility are important to planning and designing liveable public spaces.

1. Public Realm In Cities
UDAY YADAV
ROLL NO – 19
GUIDE- MS.BEENA NARAIN
Public realm is defined as space that is shared communally by the public.
Public space is intimately linked to the ideas of universal access, the common ground, and shared
amenities.
Examples include parks, plazas, pedestrian pathways, and streets, indoor spaces such as atriums,
shopping centres, and community centres.
Rooftop and community gardens,
and street cafes demonstrate
new examples of public spaces
that are emerging as significant
components of the public realm
landscape.
Public spaces influence the
form and function of cities and
the daily interactions that take
place at the community level.

2. AIM of A Public Realm
Essentially the public realm is a place for
individuals to come together as a community and
experience the place.
This can occur in such a way where the user of the
public realm is either directly or indirectly
participating in the public life.

3. Rationale For Selection Of This T
•
Public space is integral to the concept of
liveability and the social, economic and
environmental viability of communities.
•
Planners and designers undertaking
revitalization efforts have made (and
continue to make) decisions about preferred
living environments.
•
Planning and design of the public realm often
excludes the end user thereby creating
inappropriate and meaningless spaces.
•
An analysis of form and function through use,
access and perception is useful in terms of
planning for a liveable environment that is
valued by the local and surrounding
communities.

4. Investment in Public Space
Increases safety and a reduced fear of crime;
It can improve residential neighbourhoods,
safeguarding property values and increasing
attractiveness to visitors;
Create economic and social development
opportunities.
The vast web of streets, parks (green areas) and
plazas that define the public realm is often lacking,
too poorly planned, or without adequate citizen
participation in the design process.

5. Streets
They mould the urban form and carry public
utilities that a city needs to function.
They provide people with the capacity to move
and communicate and they are the setting for
businesses and exchange of services and
goods.

6. Parks and Plazas
A plaza can be any gathering place on a street or
between buildings, a street intersection with a
statue, etc.

7. ART in public space
Art in public spaces brings enormous value to the
citizens while promoting a more creative
environment.
Therefore, sculptures, fountains, on screen visuals
and other forms of public displays of art should
continue to be encouraged and recognised to
enhance our public spaces in the years that
follow.

8. Fundamentals Of Planning And
Through social life in the public realm, people
broaden their scope of social awareness and
become attune to how people from different
socio-economic and cultural backgrounds live.
Children for example, learn about the people in
their community, and how to interact and relate
with them on a daily basis through life in public.
While this is important for all persons, the
experience of observing others is particularly
important for the social development of children.

9. PROPERTIES OF THE PUBLIC REALM
IMAGEABILITY
A public realm with sidewalks, grass medians
elaborately planted with native plants, and a
central square that is enlivened by an outdoor
community art exhibit or a local farmers'
market, conveys not only beauty, vibrancy,
and activity, but a strong community spirit.
ACCESSIBILITY
There is often a fine line between private and
public spaces because visual cues in the
landscape do not always communicate what
spaces may or may not be accessible to the
public. This can be avoided by providing clear
demarcations through signage, vegetative
barriers, paving design, etc. Which can reduce
uncertainty through increased legibility.

10. MEANING
Imageability and meaning are interrelated.
When images are clear to users of the
environment, they are able to use space more
freely — taking from and adding to the
meaning that exists
CONTINUITY
Continuity is essential to creating meaning in
the environment.
For example, continuity among buildings,
paths, vegetation, etc. can create definition,
context, "sense of arrival", and also continuity
to the experience of place.

11. CHOICE
Opportunities for choice can occur through
diversity in the environment or flexibility in
design.
For example, plazas can be designed with
moveable chairs so that people using the
space have a choice in how they will
appropriate the space and feel comfortable in
it.
FLEXIBILITY
A design that is flexible enough to allow smallscale change is critical to the development of
liveable communities.