Urban Design and Spaces of Encounter

This project examines the role of urban public spaces in supporting opportunities for people to experience, develop and maintain a sense of social cohesion in contexts where cohesion is under threat from the increasing cultural and economic differences.

It focuses on three award-winning public space projects in Copenhagen, London, and Rotterdam to evaluate whether these public space projects and their design approaches have succeeded in promoting positive social encounters and achieving social cohesion. The gained knowledge will be used to provide guidance to future policies and design practices for urban public spaces and inform wider areas of social and cultural policy and service delivery.

This project was initiated with internal funding from Cardiff's Cities Research Centre and RMIT and external ERCIAA funding, and has been run in partnership with the Greater London Authority, Urban Design Group and Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design.

The project team includes Patricia Aelbrecht, Gary Bridge, Richard Gale and Quentin Stevens (RMIT).