Designing Publicness: Evaluation, Experience, and the City in Transition

Rui Leão; Thomas Chung; Luisa Bravo

doi:10.32891/jps.v11i1.1909

Cover image: The Soupes de Belleville, a solidarity project during the pandemic, Belleville, April 2021. Photo by Adèle Madeux

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Published: Jun 29, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v11i1.1909

Keywords:

publicness public space evaluation

Rui Leão

International Union of Architects (UIA)

Thomas Chung

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Luisa Bravo

City Space Architecture

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4911-8002

Abstract

Public space is where cities breathe - and where cultures negotiate who “we” are. As the UIA Public Spaces Work Programme advances a 2023-2026 roadmap including this Special Issue of The Journal of Public Space, we speak with Rui Leão, UIA Secretary-General and co-founder of award-winning LBA Architecture & Planning in Macau. From the handover-era Nam Van Lake Square and Sai Van Lake Square (ARCASIA Gold Medal 2006) with its incremental waterfront ring, to M30 (UNESCO Asia‑Pacific New Design in Heritage Context Award 2022) - an infrastructural “communication tool between two worlds” - and Station 12 at Barra, Rui’s projects show how publicness can be crafted through section, symbol, and governance. We discuss translating metrics into meanings and participation into policy, and how Barcelona 2026 can anchor a legacy that cities can measure - and feel.

How to Cite

Leão, R., Chung, T. and Bravo, L. (2026) “Designing Publicness: Evaluation, Experience, and the City in Transition”, The Journal of Public Space, 11(1), pp. 239–246. doi: 10.32891/jps.v11i1.1909.

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2026): Rethinking Public Space Evaluation

Section

Viewpoints

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Author Biographies

Rui Leão, International Union of Architects (UIA)

Rui Leão is the Secretary General of the International Union of Architects (UIA). He is an architect, urban designer, and partner and founder of LBA Architecture & Planning in Macau. He holds a degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto and a PhD in Architecture and Urbanism from RMIT University.
His professional practice focuses on architecture, urban planning, public buildings, infrastructure, and public space, with work developed mainly in Macau, Mainland China, and Europe. He is also active in architectural teaching, heritage-related editorial work, and international professional organizations, including Docomomo Macau and CIALP - International Council of Portuguese speaking architects.

Thomas Chung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Thomas Chung is Professor at the School of Architecture and Founding Director of the Research Centre for Sustainable Placemaking and Urban-rural Regeneration (SPUR), The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also Work Programme Co-director for UIA (International Union of Architects). Thomas graduated from the University of Cambridge, and his multiple award-winning projects Value Farm and Floating Fields fuse ecological design, productive landscape with socially innovative public space. Since 2019, his research in countryside conservation is driven by regenerative design, interdisciplinary action research and co-creation for well-being. Projects such as Project Plum Grove have received national and international recognition including the Times Higher Education THE Awards Asia 2025 Research Project of the Year. Organizing international symposia on Rural Revitalisation and working on a range of research initiatives and government consultancies, Thomas leads a multi-disciplinary team at SPUR dedicated to developing sustainable urban-rural futures for all.

Luisa Bravo, City Space Architecture

Luisa Bravo is a public space scholar and passionate activist, a cultural entrepreneur and an academic. After completing her PhD (2008), she has taught, researched and lectured in Europe, the United States, Middle East, Asia and Australia. She is Adjunct Professor in Urban Design at the University of Florence in Italy and has 20+ years experience in the professional field with a specific focus on public space.
Luisa holds a strong record of academic publications, she has been the recipient of grants and awards, such as the Australia Endeavour Executive Award, and she served as keynote speaker in major international conferences in 30+ countries. She has actively participated in key United Nations summits, such as the Habitat III conference (Quito, 2016), the World Urban Forum (Kuala Lumpur, 2018; Abu Dhabi, 2020; Katowice, 2022; Baku, 2024), the first UN-Habitat Assembly (Nairobi, 2019) and two High Level Meetings at the UN headquarters in New York (2017, 2022). With her non-profit organization City Space Architecture, that she founded in 2013, she organized and curated conferences, seminars, workshops and exhibitions internationally aimed at promoting public space culture. Under her leadership, City Space Architecture became partner of UN-Habitat and was engaged in the General Assembly of Partners (GAP), Research and Academia Partner Constituent Group; a member of the Davos Baukultur Alliance of the World Economic Forum; a member of the Global Planners Network (GPN).
Luisa initiated and is currently leading several public space projects, such as: The Journal of Public Space, the first, interdisciplinary, academic, open access journal entirely dedicated to public space; the Public Space Academy, the first, free, interdisciplinary educational program on public space; the Public Space Museum, a collaborative and transdisciplinary practice on public space; the web-magazine Mastering Public Space, an online and free resource with a curated collection of news on public space from influential and reliable sources.
She is a Member of AESOP Thematic group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures, a Member of the Board of Experts for the European Prize for Urban Public Space, an Expert to the European Commission for the research project 'Public Spaces as Spaces for Citizen Engagement', promoted by the JRC Competence Centre on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy. She is also an expert evaluator for EIT Culture & Creativity and for the Fulbright Commission (USA), and a consultant for the Global Platform for the Right to the City for which she wrote the thematic paper 'Cities and Human Settlements with Quality Public Spaces'.

References

LBA Architecture and Planning. Nam Van Square, Macao (2000-2001). Available at: https://lbamacau.net/portfolio/nam-van-square-macau/

LBA Architecture and Planning. Integrated Infrastructure for Power Supply and Waste Collection, Macao (2021). Available at: https://lbamacau.net/portfolio/m30/

LBA Architecture and Planning. Station 12, Macao (2017-2023). Available at: https://lbamacau.net/portfolio/station-12/

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