POPS Panel discussion: How to mend Privately Owned Public Spaces?

Please join us for this session, where a panel made by academics and spatial practitioners will be discussing Adriana Cobo Corey’s recently published book Mending POPS (Routledge, 2026). Her book is motivated by a simple observation: Privately Owned Public Spaces are overlooked sites when it comes to explore the subject of taste in architecture and urban design. With a focus on collaborative practice and temporary interventions on POPS, the panel will address questions such as: why don’t we talk about taste in socially engaged practice today? Does a focus on aesthetics pose an ethical dilemma between superficiality and depth in the face of persistent social inequity?

Our panel will be:
Anna Minton, Journalist, writer and academic. Author of Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City (Penguin, 2009)
Carl Fraser, Co-founder of Counter Mapping, designer, researcher and lecturer in architecture.
Shumi Bose, Curator; Chief Editor of KoozArch, Subject Leader on Contextual Studies, CSM, UAL
Adriana Cobo Corey, Writer and academic. Author of Mending POPS (Routledge, 2026). Subject Leader on Ethical Practice in Design, CSM, UAL

https://www.routledge.com/Mending-Privately-Owned-Public-Spaces-Works-on-Taste-and-Spatial-Practice/CoboCorey/p/book/9781032877525