Dead Public Space

"There is a .... more brutal sense of social isolation in public places, as isolation directly produced by one's visibility to others."

(about open space planning) "This destruction of walls, office planners are quick to say, increase office efficiency, because when people are all day long visually exposed to one another, they are less likely to gossip and chat, more likely to keep to themselves. When everyone has each other under surveillance , sociability decreases, silence being the only form of protection. The open-floor office plan brings the paradox of visibility and isolation. ... People are more sociable, the more they have some tangible barriers between them, just as they need specific places in public whose sole purpose is to bring them together. ... Increase intimate contact and you decrease sociability." p 15