New public spaces for new public life

Although this book on new city spaces and public life starts out one summer day in the centre of Copenhagen, it is just one of many cities in which urban policy initiatives have raised urban quality. Traffic, noise and pollution have been reduced, foot traffic and bicycle traffic have been reinforced. Public life has blossomed on the streets and squares of the city in a way not seen 20 or 30 years ago, certainly not in the form it has today, which is not even a new version of an older urban tradition, but a truly new phenomenon. The overwhelming interest in and backing for the new public life in public spaces is certainly thought provoking.
In a society in which increasingly more of daily life takes place in the private sphere - in private homes, at private computers, in private cars, at private workplaces and in strictly controlled and privatised shopping centres - there are clear signs that the city and city spaces have been given a new and influential role as public space and forum.
In contrast to the many indirect communications and the many widespread and private spaces, the opportunity for people to use their senses and interact directly with their surroundings is becoming extremely attractive. The information society is providing new meaning and significance to the city as meeting place.
It is these new public spaces and public life that are the main theme for the treatment of cities and public spaces in this book.

With daily life increasingly privatised and indirect communication growing by leaps and bounds, the need for public life in public spaces is growing. Here people can experience direct contact with other people and the society of which ee are a part. Here they can see things for themselves, experience, participate and feel a sense of community. Examples shown from France, USA, Norway, Brazil and Denmark.

New life in the city. A summer day in Sankt Hans Torv, a new urban design square in Nørrebro, Copenhagen Denmark.