Providing Public Space in a Contemporary Metropolis: Dilemmas and Lessons from London and Hong Kong

Increasingly, public space provision and management are being transferred from the public sector to real estate developers, private sector organisations, voluntary groups and community bodies. Contrasting the more historical, horizontal character of London with the intense street life of high-rise Hong Kong, this book tells the story of the two cities’ relationships with non-traditional forms of public space governance.

The authors consider the implications for the ’publicness’ of these complex spaces and the challenges and impacts that different forms of provision have on those with a stake in them, and on the cities as a whole.

Claudio De Magalhães is Head of the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London. Louie Sieh is Programme Leader for Architectural Studies at City University of Hong Kong.