The Politics of Public Space is a quarterly publication of transcripts that speak directly to the city and the way we read it. Over three years, OFFICE curated a public lecture series titled ‘The Politics of Public Space’ as part of their university teaching, inviting speakers to present in and around Melbourne, and more recently, online. Holding the series outside the conventional spaces of the institution allowed these discussions to be directed at the city’s forms and the issues at stake in their development. To preserve and disseminate these events, OFFICE has compiled this content into a printed quarterly publication.

Each issue draws out new forms of investigation between the individual practices and the content gathered from the discussions. The fact that these talks took place on street corners, in laneways or public squares is what gives them an informality, and it is this quality we seek in the publication. In releasing this print publication, OFFICE hopes to continue the discourse on what shapes the city and its spaces.