This study examines the public spaces created by the built environment of the city and asks: How is it that the apparently benign and benevolent activity of designing public space can in fact reinforce values that effectively marginalise and exclude significant groups of people? How are the value systems of those with the control over resources manifest in the built environment of the city? What impact do they have on the user's desire to 'dwell' and need to belong?
The perception of boundaries, the desire to dwell, the need to belong and the relationship of these phenomena to an understanding of 'self', is proposed as the key means for analysing how public space is experienced by the user. It contrasts the city as planned with the city as lived.
The book is aimed at the designers of the public spaces of our cities and the city dweller seeking the antidote to the increasingly isolating experiences of urban living.