The Journal of Public Space

Young Gamechangers

Christelle Lahoud — 2024-11-06

On the occasion of the 12th World Urban Forum, taking place in Cairo on 4-8 November 2024, City Space Architecture and UN-Habitat will launch this thematic issue of The Journal of Public Space dedicated to the Young Gamechangers Initiative (YGI), during a side event at the Urban Library. The Journal of Public Space is committed to diversity, inclusivity, and open access and provides an exemplary platform for such an issue featuring emerging scholars, young practitioners, and storytellers, often underrepresented in mainstream academia. Each research article, case study, and creative submission included in this thematic issue focuses on public spaces in diverse urban spaces, primarily in the Global South, and explores the nexus between governance, youth participation in placemaking, digital tools, and implications for youth health and well-being.

The Roots and Vaccine of the City

Annabel Nyole — 2024-11-06

As cities in Africa confront a constellation of systemic vulnerabilities, the narrative is often one of despair and decay. Yet, this overlooks a vital lifeline: the city’s youth, who serve both as the roots that nourish and the vaccine that heals. Like roots nourishing trees, African youth serve as transformative agents, shaping the future of urban living across economic, social, mental, physical, digital, and educational spheres. Through active engagement in public spaces, they unlock and administer the antidote to systemic urban challenges.
This study uses empirical data to highlight youth-led public space initiatives in Nairobi, Kenya, Kampala, Uganda, Freetown, Sierra Leone and Harare, Zimbabwe, revitalising local economies via urban farming and income diversification.
As stewards of green spaces, they enhance urban vitality, social connections, and well-being. Notably, the youth expand their influence into the digital sphere, advocating for internet access in public spaces as a fundamental socio-economic right. This stance aligns with Reglitz’s (2020) view on online access as essential for human rights. Within this narrative lies the principle of adaptive governance, transitioning from merely including youth as beneficiaries to youth-led decision-making.
This photo essay elucidates these dual roles, highlighting how African youth are both the roots that sustain and nourish and the vaccine that heals and rejuvenates the cities. It serves as a clarion call for a paradigm shift in how we approach planning for public spaces and governance. The message is clear: the solutions to our most pressing urban challenges reside within our cities, activated, and administered through the untapped potential of youth in public spaces.

Hands Together

Dulari Parmar — 2024-11-06

Urbanisation practices in the Global South typically push the urban poor to the margins, making way for built infrastructure. In India, this involves relocating informal settlements to Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) colonies, which often suffer from poor design and unjust resettlement processes (Burte and Kamath, 2023). These ‘formal’ habitat solutions have paradoxically been shown to compromise liveability, and engender worsening physical and mental health, particularly amongst children and young people (Doctors For You, 2018; Parmar et al., 2022; YUVA, 2019). A notable example is the Lallubhai Compound in the M-East ward, Mumbai, an R&R colony where heat islands are experienced due to poor design and ventilation (YUVA, 2023).
In this context, public spaces are important for respite, coping and recovery. The designated public spaces within Lallubhai Compound were concretised; however, this led to waterlogging, with use ranging from informal waste disposal to addas (hindi slang for common gathering points) for drugs and alcohol. This paper discusses how a non-profit, Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), collaborated on reclaiming an abandoned public space in Lallubhai Compound through a climate justice lens. The approach adopted cut across existing power imbalances, and included the municipality, youth and children’s collectives, women’s groups, experts and donors, resulting in a nature-based solution that firmly intersects with community placemaking.
Children and young people worked with adults to spread awareness, co-design the public space and adopted scientific greening to successfully create a safe, green haven, enabling social cohesion amongst residents. The community-led initiative demonstrates a nature-based micro transformation toward climate-just adaptations in urban poor communities that can be upscaled. Amid growing scholarship on sustainable adaptations in informal settlements and with the urban poor, this paper frames possibilities for overcoming social and climate vulnerabilities (Garschagen et al., 2024) while offering pathways for systemic change toward climate-just cities.

Exploring the Digital Practices of the Youth

Thien Nguyen — 2024-11-06

This paper focuses on the evolving dynamics of digital youth engagement in revitalising public spaces, presenting a compelling case study of the Saigon Zoo-Botanical Garden in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden (also known as Saigon Zoo) was once a popular entertainment hub. However, during the 2000s, there was a gradual decline in interest among young visitors, attributed to negative narratives in the public media. This decline almost led to closure amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Aware of the situation, the youth began to embrace a proactive role in promoting the site through social media. They shared delightful moments of the zoo’s animals, setting a trend for taking portraits against the backdrop of its picturesque botanical scenery. Through both physical and digital involvement, the youth breathed fresh life into this historical destination, engaging in acts of photo-taking and photo-sharing when visiting the Saigon Zoo. This study explores the case of the Saigon Zoo, examining how digital involvement influences the youth’s perception and engagement with space. Given the nature of this study, the interview process and Photovoice method were employed to understand the digital-related behaviours of the youth. The findings underscore the positive impact of digital engagement on well-being while emphasising the need for a balanced approach to foster optimal engagement.

Case Study in Girl-led Placemaking

Swan Yee Tun Lwin — 2024-11-06

The Mya Malar community park in Yangon, Myanmar, is an innovative, girl-led placemaking project that stands as a noteworthy case study demonstrating the impact of youth engagement and participatory design on their health and well-being. Completed in 2018 as part of the SPRING Accelerator Program, the project was spearheaded by 15 local girls aged 13 to 18 in collaboration with the community under the guidance of Doh Eain, a local multidisciplinary participatory design practice. Like many societies, girls in Myanmar face significant challenges in accessing and utilising public spaces, often grappling with concerns for their safety and a sense of exclusion from the communal environments. Rather than resorting to the default solution of restricting them to their homes, the Mya Malar project deliberately positioned the girls at the helm of the initiative enabling them to be a key part of the entire process from brainstorming to implementation. The project’s significance is further underscored by its contribution to altering the prevailing dynamics of community representation in Yangon. Traditionally dominated by affluent Bamar Buddhist males, the Mya Malar park represented a crucial departure, offering a unique platform for young girls to shape their surroundings by actively navigating the complexities of city systems and participating in urban governance in a city characterised by limited opportunities for youth involvement.
The positive outcomes of the project encompassed improvements in the health and well-being of the local youth. By creating a gender-equitable environment, the space promoted an active lifestyle and nurtured social cohesion within the community for a wider demographic, while fostering the soft skills and interpersonal competencies of the participating girls. Its successful amalgamation of social inclusivity, youth civic engagement, and participatory design serves as a testament to the transformative potential of collaborating with youths to shape sustainable and empowering urban environments.

Youth Empowerment in Urban Kampung Neighborhood Through Placemaking

Dheamyra Ihsanti — 2024-11-06

The concept of placemaking entails the necessity for practical implementation rather than being solely theoretical or based on planning considerations. Placemaking practices focus on human activities and public spaces. Therefore, the process of placemaking necessitates active involvement and engagement with the community, as it is essential to understand and incorporate the unique needs, values, and aspirations of the residents to create a sense of belonging and identity towards a public space. A unique example is community in “urban kampung” in Indonesia, a prevalent urban neighbourhood archetype characterised by distinct attributes and a conservative community. The urban kampung, with its dense population, poses many issues, one of which is the need for additional public places. The current study focuses on employing the placemaking strategy, specifically targeting children and youth as the primary users, to enhance the provision of activities inside two urban kampungs in Bandung and Jakarta where youth predominate.
Through engagement in projects, this article demonstrates the application of two distinct methodologies between the cities. The strategy in Bandung involved revitalising a previously-neglected area under a highway bridge and transforming it into a suitable football facility. While the strategy in Jakarta concentrated on experimenting with how to organise activities with the children at the urban kampung, both cities have projects aimed at promoting community engagement in public places via the use of placemaking. It is important to acknowledge that children have distinct values, understanding and needs that should be accommodated in public spaces. This study posits that the placemaking strategy may be effectively implemented in small-scale projects, such as creating specific activities or establishing dedicated spaces. Findings indicate that physical attributes are insufficient for a location to be considered excellent; rather, the presence of engaging activities is necessary to enhance its quality.

Towards Hope As Practice

Natasha Sharma — 2024-11-06

Low-income neighbourhoods in our cities are often poorly-planned spaces that exacerbate socioeconomic disparities their residents face. These inequities also impact their health, especially communities in the Global South who are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. One such example of an inadequately planned rehabilitation neighbourhood is Natwar Parekh in Mumbai’s Govandi. Over 25, 000 former slum dwellers - the population of a tier 3 city - have been crammed into 61 seven-storey buildings, with 80% homes having little to no access to sunlight or ventilation. The area is flanked by Asia’s largest landfill and polluting industries, creating an unhealthy environment with poor air quality and contamination. Tuberculosis and other diseases are on the rise here and the average life expectancy is just 39 years, almost half the national average.
Govandi is ghettoised and neglected by the rest of Mumbai. Children who grew up here hesitate to mention their address because of the stigma attached to living here. Burdened by this shame and loss, Govandi’s youth came together seven years ago to work with a group of artists and urban practitioners from Community Design Agency (CDA), a social design organisation, to reimagine their neighbourhood. Together, they have redesigned garbage-filled alleyways into accessible streets, painted vibrant murals, and held the first-ever Govandi Arts Festival that allowed them to redefine their narratives of the place they call home. These initiatives have brought the community closer, made them more resilient, and even prompted spatial improvements by city authorities who were forced to turn their gaze here. This essay explores the interlinkages between spatial improvements via arts and placemaking initiatives and their effects on the physical and emotional well-being of Govandi’s youth. Urban practitioners Natasha Sharma and Sandra Alexander from CDA explore methodologies for regenerative place-making in this vulnerable neighbourhood.

Digital Public Spaces for Youth Engagement in Informal Settlements

Stephen Nyagaya — 2024-11-06

Public participation in all its forms is continually limited amongst the marginalized, especially those living in informal settlements. While the right to participate in decision-making on policy and development projects is enshrined in state laws, the urban poor continue to be excluded from such activities, thereby limiting their democratic rights. Inadequate public spaces are one factor that minimalizes the urban community’s participation in citywide proposals. Besides, other forms of participation, such as digital engagement, do not reach the urban poor due to the limited digital infrastructure in low-income areas of the city. Attempts to conduct participation in informal settlements see only a few people engaged in those worsening existing inequalities in cities. This article proposes a strategy for designing and implementing digital hubs as vital and vibrant public spaces for youth engagement in informal settlements. It looks beyond the hubs as spaces for merely enhancing digital connection but as spaces that integrate interactive and collaborative activities, thus bringing community members to participate in government decision-making processes and engagement with the community agenda. Taking the case of Mathare informal settlement, the article draws inspiration from the government of Kenya’s plan to establish 1450 digital hubs across all wards in the country. The article proposes a hybridity of activities in the proposed hubs to have both physical and digital engagement methods. Besides participation, the hubs would also be used to promote social health and wellbeing programs through digital literacy training, enterprise development, activism, empowerment, and engagement in remote/online tasks.

Play for All

Salma Mohamed Mahmoud Elshafie — 2024-11-06

The practice of play, encompassing physical activity and social connectedness, exerts a positive effect on communities’ health and overall urban quality of life. Depending on design and social dynamics, public spaces in cities can be more or less welcoming for young women. Public spaces in Cairo, Egypt, lack playful elements that attract young women to partake in physical activities. This study seeks to identify and assess the current situation of physical activity and play in Cairo for young women. This shall be achieved through exploring their experiences with means of appropriation of public spaces and empowerment, according to the cultural norms, safety concerns and physical design elements. To do so, the study used digital ethnography to gain an understanding of the types of activities young women engage in public spaces and their modes of collective organisation. Observations across the city have then been conducted, and the three neighbourhoods of Al Rehab, Madinati and Zamalek have been selected to pursue more in-depth field observations and interviews. Doing so highlighted the challenges and the opportunities these young women face, shedding light on ways to strengthen their use of play-based urban forms and sports infrastructures in public spaces. The study finds that to pursue physical activity, young women tend to privilege certain safer urban spaces, such as Gated Communities and temporalities allowing for less risks of street harassment. Social media platforms have been understood as instruments for collective organisation, catalysing and multiplying female physical activity in Cairo’s public spaces. The study suggests that the use of social media platforms can be instrumentalised for young women’s empowerment in shaping diverse public spaces and placemaking processes. In the end, the research sheds light on the pathways forward to enhance young women’s engagement in the design and use of playful and active public spaces in culturally sensitive contexts.

A Digital Blueprint of Breathing Spaces in Mumbai

Ashwini Deshpande — 2024-11-06

Mumbai, amongst the most densely populated cities in India, offers an alarming ratio of 1.24 square meters of public open space per capita (MCGM, 2016, p. 70). The negligence in the provision and protection of public open spaces in the city’s recent Development Plan 2034, further exacerbates this deficiency. The lack of comprehensive guidelines and policy framework for efficient tracking, monitoring and management makes it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of these breathing spaces in the city. Public open spaces are further endangered owing to ill maintenance and heavy encroachments. The research underlying this paper outlines a strategic framework for developing a digital inventory of open spaces designated by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). This framework is intended to facilitate the management and monitoring of these areas. By annotating descriptive, quantitative, and analytical parameters, the study begins with an exhaustive ground survey of around 634 public open spaces in the suburban areas of Mumbai. The research critically evaluates the collated survey data and employs a GIS mapping methodology for geospatial analysis. Finally, it aims to make the inventory readily available to all stakeholders and citizens through digital tools and platforms that also allow real-time engagement with local communities. The focus of this paper is on the role of digital tools in creating a repository available on an open-source platform that can help identify issues with public open spaces and encourage public participation in preserving and improving open spaces in the city with respect to health, safety, and comfort. The database created based on the survey focuses on governance, accessibility, safety, encroachments, and design aspects. The findings from the study will help navigate the issues of public open spaces in dense urban conglomerations like Mumbai.

Pedalling Towards Improved Well-being

Shreya Khurana — 2024-11-06

Rapid urbanisation and population growth in Delhi have led to a significant increase in the demand for transport infrastructure. However, a traditional adherence to car-centric development in Indian cities has contributed to escalating road injuries and degraded urban settings, exposing pedestrians and cyclists to a fatality risk of around 40 times higher than car users. To address these challenges, strategies like Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) are crucial in promoting sustainable mobility. Despite its proven effectiveness globally, the influence of NMT on the Quality of Life (QoL), especially on the youth (aged 15-29 years) in the Indian context remains unexplored. This paper investigates a recent integration of NMT infrastructure on one of Delhi’s most accident-prone roads through space redistribution. The paper gathers infrastructure assessment factors and physical, social, mental and economic well-being indicators from existing literature and user perceptions on-site. Based on user perceptions, these are correlated, followed by a quantitative study of the influence of each factor on its corresponding indicator using positive responses before and after transformation. The study emphasises key factors that must be addressed while revamping public streets to enhance the health and well-being of young individuals. It suggests that layout quality and lighting significantly improve safety and comfort. Yet the design compromises safety due to a lack of city-level and neighbourhood continuity, and intersections with the high-speed road, resulting in a low rating for physical well-being. A composite well-being score is calculated to illustrate the extent of impact on QoL. Insights derived from the case of Delhi offer a practical framework for other Indian cities seeking to enhance their urban landscapes. The paper emphasises the perspectives of youth on quality well-being, shows how different design features act toward achieving a high QoL, and intends to nudge a shift toward pedestrian-friendly cities.

An Empirical Case Study on Public Spaces and Youth Health and Mental Well-being in Botswana Cities and Major Urban Villages

Rebaone Ruth Dick — 2024-11-06

Public spaces are vital in urban image and a settlement’s sociocultural fabric and identity. Furthermore, public spaces affect the degree to which people and the community socialise, especially young people who face adverse challenges that affect their health and mental well-being. Research has proven that connection with nature and safe play spaces are vital to youth’s healthy lives and cognitive and social development, where peer pressure and developing a sense of belonging are critical issues to youth who have become more susceptible to the effects of social exclusion in a digitising and urbanising world. However, intense urban transformation processes have led to an influx of challenges and sometimes threats to public spaces that require countries and the globe to revert some of the city systems and policies that govern settlements. Nonetheless, there should be an integration and interconnection between youth initiatives and urban systems for convivial public spaces. Through an empirical case study, composed of a mixed data collection approach using literature review, observation, questionnaire, and interview surveys, this research provides a more critical approach to assess public spaces in Botswana and their impact on youth mental health and social well-being who are faced with adverse challenges including social exclusion, unemployment, and drug and alcohol abuse. This paper starts by giving a background overview, then gives an in-depth understanding of public space in Africa, focusing on Botswana and probes to understand youth health and mental well-being in a continually urbanising and globalising world.

Placemaking and People-making

Ferdinand III Isla — 2024-11-06

This study aimed to understand the interaction between young people and the built environment of Taal Park, a public park located in the poblacion (central business district) of a historical town in Batangas, Philippines. With a renewed appreciation of public spaces in the post-COVID-19 era, this work builds on the promising opportunity for people to collectively claim the right to a (city) space – and to continuously reshape it through time. Employing a qualitative case study research design, the study involved the conduct of a survey and unstructured non-participant observation. Data was then analysed through complementary descriptive and thematic analysis. The results of the study highlighted the positive impact of Taal Park on youth well-being through effective design that facilitates and encourages social interactions. The nexus between placemaking and people-making in this context illustrates how the built environment design and young people’s use of public spaces are mutually reinforcing. However, limitations in terms of the planning systems that are currently in place further highlight the need for more meaningful youth engagement mechanisms. Future research should continue utilising a transdisciplinary approach to deepen the knowledge base on public space in Global South contexts focussing on exploring effective youth engagement strategies in urban planning. Overall, ensuring that youth have a substantive role in shaping these environments can lead to more inclusive, dynamic, and vibrant public spaces.

How India can Support Teenage Girls’ Mental Wellbeing via Inclusion of Park Planning through Digital Engagement

Holly Gray — 2024-11-06

This paper examines how teenage girls’ use of digital governance in planning parks can support mental well-being in India by drawing on existing sources and lessons learned from Scotland’s approach. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11.7 calls for inclusive public spaces worldwide. However, both Scotland and India provide opportunities for mediocre engagement of teenage girls, allowing a lack of inclusivity in parks, fostering smartphone dependence, social isolation, and the downfall of mental well-being (Hindustan Times, 2016; Make Space for Girls, 2023a). Park professionals within the United Kingdom appear oblivious to this issue: 89% believe parks cater to everyone, but only 22% of teenage girls agree (Baker et al., 2022). Meanwhile, Indian parks seem predominantly male-centric. Boys in India use parks to age ~20, but girls stop using them at ~12 (Hindustan Times, 2016).
Previous digital engagements by Scotland and the United Nations, such as Minecraft, feel male-oriented. Instead, India can empower girls’ digital skills using other governance engagements like social media and games.
This paper aims to deepen the understanding of how inadequate park provisions have contributed to well-being issues among teenage girls in Scotland and how India could address similar challenges through a proposed digital strategy. The paper will first explore barriers to sufficient park planning within Scotland and India and how these barriers impact the mental well-being and future outcomes of teenage girls. A proposed digital strategy for India will be presented, which aims to implement more parks suitable for teenage girls through digital governance and engagement, drawing on lessons from Scotland’s experiences.

The Intangible Values of Placemaking in Engaging Youth for Activating and Shaping Places

Martina Borini — 2024-11-06

Placemaking represents a multifunctional approach to urban design that brings together communities around places to foster their sense of belonging and enhance the identity of urban spaces. These places represent the backbone of the city, not only for their physical dimension, but also for social and cultural interactions, where youth have an active role in envisioning a new future for cities by actively participating in placemaking processes, acquiring a strong sense of ownership, and creating youth-friendly places. In that vision, schools can boost this approach by starting to rethink public spaces around them together with students. This study addresses, firstly, the necessity to recognise the intangible values of urban projects by assessing the values of a placemaking process when no physical changes have yet been realised. Secondly, it delves into the benefits of engaging youth in the creation of inclusive and sustainable cities. It examines how youth engagement in these processes can be advantageous and how schools can play a crucial role in the development of public spaces by participating in placemaking activities.
To address these research questions and evaluate the intangible values, an “Impacts Assessment Framework” was developed. This tool helps reconsider challenges by expanding their scope and seeking solutions. The framework was also used to evaluate the “Carpi Campus” experience, assessing the impacts of intangible values from the initial phase, even before physical changes were implemented. The intangible values of placemaking in engaging youth include understanding and addressing complex issues pedagogically, training in active citizenship (including typically excluded individuals in urban planning), and fostering new design abilities for envisioning future scenarios.

“The Story of Makanuna” Poem

Malak Alaa Eldeen Abbas — 2024-11-06

"Welcome to 'Makanuna', our place … home of our inner spirit
A trove of things crafted by our hands … is waiting for you to find inside this space." Malak Alaa Eldeen, 2023

Makanuna Al-Khalifa was a participatory placemaking project empowering adolescents in al-Khalifa neighbourhood in historic Cairo to redesign their local public spaces. Through 2021-2022 workshops, around 20 youth aged 13-18, including Malak Alaa Aldeen, upcycled solid and organic waste into outdoor furniture, games, and compost for al-Khalifa Park. A key output was Malak’s poem “The Story of Makanuna” with illustrations by her sister Fatma Alaa Eldeen, also a workshop participant. In vivid verses, the 17-year-old welcomes readers to “Makanuna” - Arabic for “Our Space” - home to their creativity and handcrafted items. She describes making a gazebo “formed from three triangles” of repurposed plastic bottles and rope, illuminated to resemble “a rainbow”, delighting all who see it. Inspired, they crafted five more lighting units “with bold colours and innocent hands.”The poem conveys their determined spirit driving this unique space’s creation through hard work “from our plans.” Malak radiates pride in resourceful designs like a recycling bin filled with bottles containing natural materials from the park. Her closing words capture their ownership: “Here is our place and our story. So, what do you think of our idea in all its glory?”Empowering youth to transform underutilized areas fostered creativity, environmental stewardship and belonging. Building on this, Malak, Fatma and other core team members launched “Makanuna Initiative” to pursue placemaking further. Malak now voices this youth-led initiative’s junior team, aiming to inspire wider involvement. Malak’s poem and Fatma’s illustrations powerfully capture their sustainable accomplishments. This highlights the initiative’s origins in the Al-Khalifa workshops through adolescent participants who helped catalyse Makanuna’s growth from a local project into a youth-led movement.

Thank You for Allowing Us To Speak

Nitya Jaiswal — 2024-11-06

In Thank You for Allowing Us To Speak, youth pedestrian activists Nitya Jaiswal (13) and Radha Patel (18) - supported by Auckland-based urban strategist, Boopsie Maran - describe images from their parallel traffic safety campaigns.
Across Auckland, families feel the streets students must use between their home and the school gate are growing to be more hostile than ever before. Particularly, in the city centre, their environment lacks shade and safe separation from car traffic, and often includes crossing the entrance to a motorway. While the kids themselves understand that walking and using active modes is a sustainable route, they just wish their streets were made safer by adult drivers, often the ones speeding to work.
This photo essay highlights the inherent challenges faced by students on and off the streets—whether at a traffic circle or at local board offices sitting opposite elected members. Through captions and selected images, Jaiwal and Patel speak frankly to their intended adult audience and detail in their own words the “consequences, for [those] of you who are wondering.”

Where It Should Always Be

Carlos Andres Olivera Caballero — 2024-11-06

“Where It Should Always Be, ” is a powerful poem written by Carlos Andres Olivera Caballero. The poem delved into the complex interplay between urban spaces and social movements. It illustrates how public spaces, often overlooked, became crucial arenas for the expression of communal identity, resistance, and aspirations for a just society. Set against the backdrop of a city undergoing turmoil, the poem is narrated through the experiences of a young individual witnessing the transformation of everyday urban landscapes into sites of collective action and contestation. It captures the essence of public space as a platform for civic engagement, where the community’s fight for equality, dignity, and freedom is articulated and enacted. Through vivid imagery and emotive storytelling, the poem reflects on the role of public spaces in shaping social dynamics, highlighting their potential to foster solidarity, empower marginalized voices, and challenge structures of power. It emphasizes the solidarity of resonates the reader’s interest in urban cmovements underlining thepoem’son message of community empowerment.

Steering Through Negotiations of the Self and the Surround

Arryan Siingh — 2024-11-06

In 2021, youth in India amounted to 371.4 million, representing a 22.7% population share (Youth in India-2022 Ministry of Statistics and Implementation). The haphazard urbanisation occurring in a city like Mumbai has resulted in the creation and further development of slums. The Western outlook of urban development for a culturally rich and homogenous city like Mumbai has resulted in the “othering” of Youth. Spaces that are meant for the community are used to create commercial properties. The community is, in turn, squeezed into slum rehabilitation homes. One witnesses a slash and burn of various communities- the youth being a common target among these. The city has created an increase in voids with the absence of any human interaction, and hyperactive spaces have germinated with vehicular obstructions restricting pedestrian movement. With its dichotomies, the city has created a platform where physical conglomerations are considered loitering, while digital platforms have become virtual playgrounds for the transference of thoughts and ideas. For each member of the city’s youth that lacks access to open space, there exist dozens who gather in these digital centres. We, therefore, notice an interesting dynamic in the city where digital evolution and accessibility surpasses one’s physical existence in the urban fabric. There have been attempts at making spaces within this fabric that are accessible for play, education, and gathering. The digital connection grows stronger than the physical-spatial one. The youth still triumphantly evolve through these disconnected connections. It is either this or non-existence. This photo essay attempts to bring forward this tumultuous relationship between youth and the urban domain, of the privatised open spaces and the global digital stage. The youth in the city, and by extension, the country, attempt to navigate this duality.