Dietmar Steiner, architect and director of the Architekturmuseum Wien, was interviewed by Shared Spaces on the occasion of his visit to the CCCB as a member of the jury for the 2012 European Prize for Urban Public Space.

In the interview, Dietmar Steiner affirmed that, for all the discussion about virtual public space in recent decades, we should not forget about real public space made up of city streets and squares. Moreover, he says, it is necessary to return to a model of the city in which divisions between pedestrians, cyclists and drivers are not as marked as they are nowadays. Steiner went on to define public space in European cities, distinguishing it from that in most American and Chinese cities. In his view, “The distinguishing feature of the European city is that it is made for pedestrians”. Finally, he stated that, “The worst problem for public space is public space in another form”, namely spaces occupied by shopping malls and their increasing sway over “real public space”.