Urban public spaces fulfil important societal functions and shape many of the characteristics of cities and urban areas. However, there are a number of dilemmas involved in their development and maintenance. An urban dilemma is defined as two or more competing goals, such as stakeholder interests and related strategies, which potentially fail to achieve their aims when implementing one strategy hampers or prevents the achievement of another. In this sense, dilemmas articulate the challenges and wicked issues involved in liveable urban development. Regarding urban public spaces, for instance, typical crossings of concerns are related to everyone’s right to the city, climate change actions and how to cater for safety and security without promoting increasingly exclusive spaces. Additionally, all these functions, dynamics, characteristics and how public spaces are formally and informally organized in general in urban areas determines if a given city is open or closed. The aims of this session is to unfold dilemmas of public space and the interrelations between placemaking and design and subjective/objective safety in public spaces. The relevance of placemaking to address the dilemma, as well as identify open questions to be addressed by research and innovation regarding inclusion, climate change adaptation, increasing safety and better policies will be highlighted in a workshop setting.
