Space can be real or virtual and, indeed, both are equally important. Real space is what we find ourselves sharing with other people and things, while virtual space, as manifested by painting and graphic arts, is represented on a surface - space we "seem to see". If we look deeper into the concept of real space, it offers a number of variations. In its narrowest sense, it is only a metric thing - the physical size of a room, a building or a place.

In metric terms, Hong Kong is only a tiny spot on the world map. Only 22 percent of our land - some 230 square kilometers - is urbanized. Is that adequate for the 7 million of our population? The answer could be "yes" or "no". For a person sentenced to solitary confinement, a minimum requirement of seven square meters is prescribed under Hong Kong law. This is probably the minimum space requirement necessary in order not to drive a person insane over a period of time. Seen in this perspective, our urbanized area could, in theory, accommodate as many as 34 million people. This, I should add, only takes into account the surface land area, but not the multiplier effect of vertical expansion of floor space into the sky.

But we could also take a broader view to include "personal" space as well as "social" space. By personal, I am referring to space represented by an art form such as sculpture, which provides relations to the real spatial conditions of our embodied existence. That includes size, uprightness, vulnerabilities, temporal finitude, capacities for movement, strengths, reaches and grasps. As for social space, it is best represented by architecture because it encloses and includes institutions. It is the means by which human groups are set in their actual arrangements.

Public space, in the broadest sense, is just what it says - those areas that are public, or open to the public, or that have been designed for public use. In Hong Kong, for example, about 80 percent of our land is designated green area such as country parks, woodland, shrub land, grassland, mangroves, swamps, reservoirs and streams.These are set aside for the enjoyment of residents, most of whom live in high-rise apartments. We have what we call New Towns - satellite cities that are home to upwards of 300,000 people. Because we have limited land resources, we have what could be called "vertical urban sprawl". This approach allows us to free up valuable space for community facilities such as parks and gardens, playgrounds for the kids, performing arts venues, public thoroughfares, shopping centers and transport interchanges. With limited living space, people in Hong Kong basically use their homes to dwell in and spend the night. But we interact with each other in the cityscape that we have created - in the parks and gardens, in shopping malls and restaurants, in street markets. All over Europe, people interact in grand piazzas and plazas; in the US people join sporting clubs, gyms and social clubs; in Australia and New Zealand family and friends will often gather around a BBQ in a park or a neighbor's backyard to establish, renew or reinforce links within their particular communities. So public space can also be regarded as not just areas that are open to the public, but areas where social interaction takes place. And if public space is where social interaction takes place, then it must also be an integral part of the culture of that society. Our city planners should pay heed to these considerations.

The author is former secretary for home affairs of the Hong Kong SAR government

(HK Edition 11/11/2009 page1)