Publicness of Public Spaces in Metropolitan City of a Developing Country: The Case of Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Modern urban design has changed the image of traditional public space and proved significant for raising level of publicness. This study evaluates the publicness of commercial public spaces in Lahore, using the Star Model, widely suggested in the literature, to recommend urban design interventions for improving the publicness of similar public spaces. The level of publicness is assessed against five sets of attributes pertaining to, (i) Access and Linkages, (ii) Symbolic Access and Outlook, (iii) Animation, (iv) Control and (v) Civility. Methodology involves interview-based surveys with the visitors and shopkeepers. Findings show a poor performance by the case studies against the criteria of evaluation. Therefore, research suggests necessary design intervention and concludes on the significance of urban design elements in extruding publicness level of public spaces. Keywords: Publicness, Public Spaces, Star Model, Urban Design, Moon Market, Barkat Market