Warning, patrons ahead! A development assessment framework for public space for landscape architects drawing on lessons from the Festival City of Adelaide, Australia.

A deceptively simple and benign sign placed in a public park states, ‘Warning: You may find event equipment and patrons on the pathway’ (Figure T-2). The sign hints at the complexity and contradictions of public space and poses a curious question that continues to gain currency in multidisciplinary discourse: How public is public space? This thesis poses a further question by asking, Do temporary events pose a threat to public space? To answer both questions, the thesis draws on the historic trajectory of urban public space, culminating in an extensive appraisal of 20th century forms and programs. In doing so, the thesis examines definitions of ‘public space’ and ‘public’, and considers how a more rigorous understanding of these terms can inform the practice of landscape architecture. As a result, the thesis proposes a new definition of public space, focusing on the value of publicly accessible space. It also proposes a new typology of publics—the defined public, the appropriating public, the transitory public and the illegitimate public—to better understand perceived and actual threats to public space. To test these definitions, the thesis critically reviews existing assessment methods, techniques and tools, and their application in landscape architectural assessments. It asks if current approaches adequately depict the typology of publics and the diversity of private use. As a result, the thesis proposes an integrated approach termed the Design Assessment Framework as a guide for alternative design strategies and policy formation for publicly accessible landscapes. The framework measures the degree of ‘publicness’ in public space by comprehensively capturing and assessing public space elements. The perceived conflict between public space and private use is explored through 16 case study sites in Adelaide, Australia. The city is recognised internationally for its urban plan, which includes a generous provision of public space and it is celebrated for the many festivals and events held within the city. The thesis offers an important and timely counter point to the majority voice that laments the future of public space, concluding that publicness is a spectrum, not an absolute. It positions landscape architects in a pivotal role to influence the effective design of public space and create a richer place for publics to interact. The typology of publics and the Design Assessment Framework are presented as new tools for landscape architects to assess public spaces and implement a spectrum of inclusivity. Finally, the thesis argues that events are not a threat to the publicness of public space, and should instead be viewed as opportunities to bring the community together for social exchange. Without social exchange, the question of threats to the publicness of public space may be a moot point.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Architecture and Built Environment, 202

Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California\u27s East Bay

In recent years, a number of researchers in geography and in urban studies have taken to the idea of the right to the city. These scholars have drawn on the idea to frame debates on topics as wide ranging as urban social movements, the regulation of urban public space, to the relationship between cities and citizenship. Implicit in this literature is a conception of the city and of urban space in which political conflict and class struggle are dominating features. This dissertation seeks to add to that discussion by focusing on debates over transit policy in California\u27s East Bay. In addition to contributing to scholarship on the right to the city, this dissertation also broadly encroaches upon work in transportation geography. Drawing on three months of fieldwork, this dissertation makes two arguments. First, it argues that debates over rights ought to matter for those interested in the geography of urban transportation, and second, it argues for seeing urban mass transit as central to securing a right to the city. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with transit activists and a focus group with transit dependent riders, I highlight the degree to which the democratic rights of many East Bay residents hinge upon transit access. For many of these residents, a right to the city means a right to transit. Across six chapters of the dissertation, I also focus more broadly on the relationship between transit policy and conflicts over rights -- whether these conflicts take the form of labor disputes or civil rights lawsuits. These conflicts, I argue, have shaped the geography of transit in the region. While the dissertation highlights the importance of rights and the right to the city for understanding both the geography of urban transit, as well as transit\u27s role in the public life of cities, it also highlights some of the challenges and contradictions associated with the idea of the right to the city. Toward the end of the dissertation I address these challenges and contradictions head-on by arguing for understanding the right to the city as a right against the idiocy of urban life