Space is Politics – Architecture, Democracy, and the Public Realm

In Space is Politics, Hans Teerds demonstrates that space is never neutral. Drawing on the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt, he argues passionately for understanding architecture not merely as design, but as a social practice that actively shapes encounters, participation, and exclusion.

Democracy thrives on togetherness—on people meeting face-to-face in public squares, parks, sidewalks, and cafés. These are not just backdrops, but vital arenas of democratic life. Yet the pressing question remains: who decides how these spaces are designed? Who is welcomed, and who is pushed aside?

Teerds reveals how architecture defines borders, grants access, and erects barriers—always a political act in itself. By reclaiming the debate on public space from private investors and experts, he calls for a renewed civic responsibility: to treat space as a common good and to shape it collectively.

A manifesto for architects, urban planners, and engaged citizens alike, Space is Politics urges us to recognize architecture as a deeply political task and to reimagine the built environment as a foundation for democratic coexistence.