Eyes on the Space: Critiquing Public Spaces In All Corners of the World

Hello fellow Steemers! I am Eyes on the Space, and I am a university student who aspires to become an urban designer. For those of you who are unfamiliar with architectural and urban planning jargon, think of urban design as the organization and aesthetics of physical infrastructure and interaction between buildings, nature, and human life. My particular interest in urban design is the overall feel of public spaces. I strongly believe that public spaces are the most important – and controversial – areas of a city because they are indicative of the history and the beliefs of the residents of that municipality. In other words, you can discover the origins of the space and the city in which it is situated, as well as the attributes that the municipality’s residents find important. For this blog, I intend to examine public spaces around the world and grade them according to the urban planning and design principles that I have learned during my career as a post-secondary student. Unfortunately, I have not been to most of these places; nonetheless, I intend to use this blog to apply some of the lessons on city shaping that I have learned and enhance my knowledge of urban areas.

Image: Paseo de San Antonio: San Jose, USA.

In addition, this blog is a unique way to communicate with other Steemers who share similar interests. I understand that urban spaces and city planning aren’t commonly discussed topics (particularly on the internet). Hopefully the lessons that I learn from others in the comments section and on other channels will enhance my knowledge of cities, architecture, urban design, and public spaces. If you haven’t visited these places as well, the reviews and discussions could increase your chances of visiting and experiencing these places from an entirely different perspective.

My grading scheme for public spaces is as follows:
Destination: I believe that good public spaces are places that people want to visit and spend a significant amount of time in because they offer something that encourages you to return in the future. There should be events occurring, they should be reachable from multiple modes of transportation (particularly public transportation), and they should have interesting features.

• Activities: Marked out of 4
• Transportation: Marked out of 3
• Features: Marked out of 3

Infrastructure: The physical components of a public space are important because they impact our sensory experiences. While nearby buildings themselves are (generally) not public spaces, they heavily influence the human scale of that space.

• Materials: Marked out of 4
• Street Furniture: Marked out of 3
• Buildings: Marked out of 3

Demographics: The types and numbers of people in the public space indicate the relative popularity and invitingness of an area. Typically, places with a high percentage of tourists are renown and intriguing. It is also important to assess the parts of the day that people are present in a public space as well as the diversity of individuals who are in the space at different times.

• Traffic: Marked out of 3
• Visitors: Marked out of 3
• Heterogeneity: Marked out of 4

Experiential: Good public spaces should be pleasurable for people to be in. They should accessible to a wide range of individuals and they should give users as much freedom as possible to gain the greatest enjoyment out of the area.

• Comfort and Safety: Marked out of 4
• Freedom: Marked out of 6



Each public space will be given a DIDE score (acronym of the abovementioned categories) out of 40. I will also suggest strategies that the municipality can implement to improve the space.

For now, the frequency of my posts will be quite irregular because I have yet to complete my schedule for the Winter semester. Once I have that figured out, I will post in regular intervals.

I seek constructive criticism of this blog because I am a relative novice to posting information for public viewing. I don’t use social media too often, but I always want to know how to improve this blog. Also, I encourage critiques of both my grading process and the marks of each public space. If you have been to these places and you disagree with my assessments, I would like to read your opinions, respond to your comments, and learn from them.

Thanks for reading this post, and I hope that you will read my future posts.


Image Source: Flickr.