Public Space Quotes

“Christmas is about community, collaboration, celebration. Done right, Christmas can be an antidote to the Me First mentality that has rebranded capitalism as neo-liberalism. The shopping mall isn't our true home, nor is it a public space, though, as libraries, parks, playgrounds, museums and sports facilities disappear, for many the fake friendliness of the mall is the only public space left, apart from the streets”
― Jeanette Winterson, Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days

“Rendons la ville aux gens, ils sauront quoi en faire.”
― Camille Ammoun

“Feeling in the middle of things, at the place to and from which streets flow, where people come not to escape the city but to be inside it: This us usually what defines a successful square. It is a space around which the rest of a neighborhood or town or city tends to be organized [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“[Hannah] Arendt wrote about the subjugation of public space - in effect the disappearance of public space, which, by depriving a person of boundaries and agency, rendered him profoundly lonely.”
― Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

“Converting a senior retainer's residence into an eating and drinking establishment seemed a little like taking a warrior's magnificent battle robe and turning it into underwear as far as I was concerned.”
― Natsume Sōseki, Botchan

“And is it not the artists that make art? Well, no: criticism is now the substance of art making to such a degree that many of today’s public artists do away with the product as an issue, and make public debate the contents of their art. In doing so they are not redefining art so much as redefining public space. The debate itself has become the public space.”
― Paul Shepheard, How To Like Everything: A Utopia

“This deeply free and public space plays a vital role in our world, equally important in our digital age as in Greco-Roman times, when they were marketplaces for goods and ideas. As common ground, squares are equitable and democratic; they have played a fundamental role in the development of free speech.”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“What do we mean by a public square? For starters, it is rarely square. . . . It may be a quadrangle or rectangle or circle or pretty much any shape, and it can be open or closed. It might even be a park . . . through which people pass, going from one place to another, not simply a retreat. A square is porous, balancing its porousness with some focal point, like a fountain or a reliable patch of sun with some benches that marks a break from the cars and streets and invites people to stop, look, exhale, find one another [Michael Kimmelman, "Part One: Culture: Power of the Place, Introduction"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“a square is also an organism, not just a work of art and architecture [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“The square is a treasure precisely because it doesn't masquerade as an outdoor museum. It's a living place, jammed with people, changeable, democratic, urbane. [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. From the start, the public square has been synonymous with a society that acknowledges public life and a life in public, which is to say a society distinguishing the individual from the state [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“a square is not just about light, air, proportion, and people. It must also give form to some shared notion of civic identity. [Michael Kimmelman, "Culture: Power of the Place"].”
― Catie Marron, City Squares: Eighteen Writers on the Spirit and Significance of Squares Around the World

“L'inégale répartition de l'espace se poursuit plus tard, encouragée par un sexisme structurel dans la société française. Quand on dit que l'espace public est neutre, ça signifie en réalité qu'il est masculin.”
― Titiou Lecoq, Libérées !

“There is a message for all city makers here. It is that with the right triangulation, even the ugliest of places can be infused with the warmth that turns strangers into familiars by giving us enough reason to slow down.”
― Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

“Most of the dictators do allow freedom in the private space. it is their tentacles in the public space that are considered the killers of democracy. if you want to test democracy, go no further than measuring the restraint that people feel in the public space about activities that cause no harm to fellow citizens, the dictator excluded.”
― R. N. Prasher