Amogh N P
✦ In loving memory of Amogh N P — Architect · Designer · Visionary ✦
A large open Indian maidan at golden hour — a vast public green ground with people walking, sitting and playing, framed in the distance by the city skyline: the collective lung of the Indian city.
Unit IIUrban Design

The Role of Public Space

The agora to the maidan — how the shared room of the city evolved.

≈ 35 min + studio task

Public space is the shared physical setting of collective life — the street, the square, the market, the park, accessible to all. It is the room the whole city owns. This unit traces its evolution from the Greek agora and the Roman forum through the enclosed medieval market square and the geometric Renaissance and Baroque piazza, to the Indian maidan, the bazaar street and the chowk. Then it turns to what gives a public space meaning today: place-making and identity, urban morphology — the study of city form over time — and how the image of the city shapes the way people perceive and value it.

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to — mapped to the course outcomes for Urban Design:

1
CO2 · Understand

Define public space and describe its main types — street, square, market, green and civic space.

2
CO2 · Understand

Trace the evolution of public space from the agora and forum to the Indian maidan and bazaar street.

3
CO2 · Understand

Explain place-making, identity and urban morphology.

4
CO2 · Apply

Read a familiar public space in terms of its type, enclosure and the role it plays in city life.

From the agora to the maidan

The evolving room of the city

Public space has a long lineage — the Greek agora, the Roman forum, the medieval square, the Baroque piazza, and India's own maidan, bazaar and chowk.[4]

The evolving room of the city AgoraGreek polisassembly + market ForumRomanmonumental centre Market squaremedievalorganic, enclosed PiazzaRenaissance / Baroqueaxial, composed MaidanIndianopen civic ground The Indian public realm is often a street and a threshold — the bazaar and the chowk — not only a contained square.
DiagramThe evolution of public space — Greek agora, Roman forum, medieval market square, Baroque piazza and the Indian maidan

The assembly of the polis

The agora was the central open space of the Greek polis — the setting for assembly, market, politics and daily encounter, framed by stoas (colonnaded walks). It fused civic, commercial and social life in one accessible space, and is the western archetype of the democratic public realm.[4]

How a square holds — or leaks enclosed Medieval — streets at corners views do not leak out on axis Baroque — streets on axis space extends, perspectival
DiagramA medieval square with streets entering at the corners to hold the space enclosed, versus a Baroque piazza opened on an axis
Identity, morphology, image

From space to place

A space becomes a place through identity, meaning and use. Morphology explains how city form is built up and transformed over time, and perception decides how the place is read.[1, 5]

Urban morphology — three layers, three speeds Land usechanges fastest — shop becomes office becomes home Building fabricbuildings rise and fall over decades Plan — streets, plots, blockschanges slowest — the street pattern outlives everything on it slower change The Conzenian reading: the plan persists, the fabric and uses change upon it.
DiagramThe three layers of urban morphology — the plan changes slowest, building fabric next, and land use fastest

The room everyone owns

Public space is space accessible to all — the shared physical setting of collective civic life. Its types span streets and boulevards, squares and plazas, markets, parks and green space, civic and monumental spaces, transit spaces, and incidental 'found' spaces. What unites them is access and shared ownership: the space the whole city, not one owner, can use.[1, 4]

Public space in one table

At a glance

AspectOneThe other
FormMedieval square: organic, enclosedBaroque piazza: geometric, axial
Streets enterMedieval: at the corners (space holds)Baroque: on axis (space extends)
Indian typeMaidan: large open civic groundChowk: street-crossing node
Space vs placeSpace: abstract, generic extentPlace: identity, meaning, use
Morphology changesSlowest: the street/plan patternFastest: buildings and land use
Vocabulary

Key terms

Public space

Space accessible to all — the shared setting of collective civic life (street, square, market, park, waterfront).

Agora

The central open assembly-and-market space of the Greek polis — archetype of the public realm.

Forum

The monumentalised civic centre of the Roman city — civic, commercial, judicial and religious.

Piazza

The composed Renaissance/Baroque urban square — geometric, axial, read as an architectural set-piece.

Maidan

The large open civic and recreational ground of the Indian city — its collective lung.

Chowk

The crossing or square where Indian bazaar streets meet — an indigenous public node.

Place-making

Giving a space identity, meaning and use so people value it — turning space into place.

Urban morphology

The study of urban form and its transformation over time (plan, fabric and land use).

Apply it

Studio task

Choose a public space in your city — a maidan, a chowk, a market street or a temple tank. Classify its type, sketch how streets enter it (do they hold the space or let it leak?), and list three things that give it identity. Then ask Whyte's question from the next unit in advance: is it actually used — by whom, and when?

Check your understanding

Self-assessment

1. The central open assembly-and-market space of the Greek polis was the —

2. In a medieval market square, streets typically enter at the corners because —

3. Urban morphology is the study of —

In a nutshell

Recap

Public space is the accessible, shared room of the city — streets, squares, markets, parks and civic spaces.
It evolved from the Greek agora and Roman forum through the enclosed medieval square to the composed Renaissance/Baroque piazza.
India's indigenous public realm is the maidan, the bazaar street and the chowk — often a street and threshold, not only a contained square.
Place-making turns generic space into a valued place with identity, meaning and use.
Urban morphology studies city form over time; the street pattern persists longest while buildings and uses change.
The evidence

References & further reading

  1. [1]Carmona, M., Heath, T., Oc, T. & Tiesdell, S. — Public Places, Urban Spaces (Architectural Press, 2003).
  2. [4]Morris, A.E.J. — History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution (Prentice Hall, 1996).
  3. [5]Lynch, Kevin — The Image of the City (MIT Press, 1960).
  4. [6]Whyte, William H. — The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (Conservation Foundation, 1980).
  5. [7]Bacon, Edmund N. — Design of Cities (Viking Press, 1967; rev. Penguin, 1976).
  6. [8]Sitte, Camillo — Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen (City Planning According to Artistic Principles, 1889).

Further reading

  • A.E.J. Morris — History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution (1996).
  • Camillo Sitte — City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889).
  • Matthew Carmona et al. — Public Places, Urban Spaces (2003).

Sources gathered and fact-checked June 2026. Published values vary by source, sample and method — treat as indicative and confirm against the cited standard before structural use.