The ‘public realm’ lies at the heart of the Building Initiative project. What does it mean to ‘be public’ in Belfast? How public is its safe to be? What things are allowed to be public? The Department of Social Development (DSD), through its Belfast City Centre Regeneration Directorate, has recently published a ‘Public Realm Strategy’ (PBS) for Belfast City Centre. This document is a welcome overview of the city centre as a whole, redressing the restricted and partial focus of earlier regeneration initiatives such as Laganside. It commits the DSD to the delivery of an important series of genuine improvements in the design, landscaping, and management of public spaces throughout the centre of the city.

However, while the PBS recognises the importance of the city centre as a place where it is relatively safe to ‘be public’, it appears to overlook the consequences and opportunities for a city where residence, education, and employment are largely defined by community affiliation. In order to deliver on its stated aim of positioning of Belfast as a ‘premier European regional capital and the primary retail and leisure destination in Northern Ireland’, it will need to do more than invest in the familiar recipe of improved paving, street furniture, and public art......Continued>>>