Urban design is a civic, strategic, and cultural act. It shapes how cities function, how people experience everyday life, and how public value is created over time. Our work is guided by a responsibility to design places that are fair, inclusive, and resilient, rooted in a deep understanding of people, place, and long-term change.

Our approach is research-led, collaborative, and purposeful. We integrate diverse expertise early and deliberately, approaching each project through multiple lenses – spatial, social, environmental, cultural, economic, and operational. By bringing together urban design, landscape, research, sustainability, engagement, and specialist knowledge, we develop clear, coherent ideas that respond to complexity and strengthen outcomes.

We work across scales and beyond site boundaries, using urban design to connect strategic ambition with spatial, social, and environmental performance. Research and analysis are not ends in themselves, but tools to shape decisions, build trust, and advocate for better long-term outcomes.
We place public value and climate responsibility at the centre of our work. We design with communities and stakeholders through listening, dialogue, and partnership, ensuring that local knowledge and lived experience inform the design process. Environmental performance, green infrastructure, adaptability, and stewardship are fundamental to design quality and civic dignity.

Publica advocates for the design of streets, neighbourhoods and cities that support safe, social and active lives for all in the evening and night time. We study urban spaces after dark and consider the impacts of our designs and strategies on the city at night. This is a foundational principle and we bring this night time lens and research to all of our projects.

We believe that planning for London’s life between 6pm and 6am is critical to the economic, social and cultural vitality of the city. We believe that the evening and night time deserves special consideration and attention because of the ways in which public spaces change over a 24 hour cycle. We also know that many marginalised groups feel more unsafe at night. Designing public spaces that work just as well at 3am as they do at 3pm is fundamental if we want to build inclusive, welcoming and liveable cities.

Publica has been commissioned to produce guidance for local authorities to develop night time strategies, undertaken detailed research into high streets and town centres at night and supported local authorities to develop their own night time policies, strategies and action plans.

“The GLA commissioned Publica to create the most ambitious night time guidance produced by any city in the world. It sets out the many benefits for councils, communities and businesses, of creating diverse and inclusive night time plans together, with step-by-step guides and case studies from across the globe on how this can be achieved.”

Designing inclusive public spaces is fundamental if we want to create places that foster civic pride and a sense of belonging. Achieving this requires a fundamental shift in how the built environment sector operates to ensure that more voices and a wider range of people with lived experiences and deep local intelligence shape how we design cities.

Designing inclusive cities is an exercise in care: it requires us to care about the experiences of people who feel unsafe in public space, avoid certain places at certain times, face barriers to access or who feel that places are not for someone like them. It requires designers and planners to confront the complexities of our shared urban spaces, and the range of meanings and experiences people attach to places, which can sometimes be in tension with one another.

Publica CIC works directly with community groups, resident associations, developers, designers, and policymakers to create inclusive public spaces in the following ways: setting policy, guidance and strategies; community participation, research and design; capacity-building; and advocacy.

In 2022, Publica CIC launched its first dedicated campaign and programme for developing gender inclusive public spaces. The campaign seeks to transform the built environment sector by mainstreaming gender inclusive approaches to the design and management of public spaces.