Urbanisation in developing countries has become challenging in recent years, especially as people move from rural to urban areas in search of better opportunities and services, thus having a cause and effect on urban habitats. These changes compounded with world population growth makes urbanisation one of the most significant global trends of the twenty-first century. Cities and urban places in general now occupy the centre stage in global development. They no longer function as mere spaces for settlement, production and services. They now profoundly shape and influence social and political relations at every level; determining advances and setbacks in modes of production; and providing new content to norms, culture and aesthetics. Cities have become a major locus of power and politics consequently influencing vision achievement and dictating policy outcomes. They are also a major factor in environmental trends and sustainability processes. Urbanisation is thus providing the setting, the underlying base, and also the momentum of global change. This project explores questions of public recreation [in particular parks] and transport, in relation to how the motorist, cyclist and pedestrian relate to these spaces. It is rooted in a desire to be “an urban design process that responds to the current paradigm [and provides] positive urban space” The project emerges out of the increasing recognition of the myriad of planning and design challenges facing Malawi’s urbanisation and is therefore located in efforts to address the significant question raised on the role of architecture [& urban design] in responding to urbanisation challenges. The research thus examines the mistakes in the recent past, from where opportunities for change arise. The concept builds on the belief that urban design as a practice has an interventionist responsibility, and as such is responsible for shaping the nature and character of cities. Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director for UN Habitat, argues that “what defines the character of a city is its public space, not its private space.” This implies that the urban designer must take an active role in shaping his or her society’s built environment. He continues that, “the urban designer’s work should be a catalyst for change (hopefully positive), but in the end the real actuators of urban design are the end users themselves.” This project opens up debates on how urban design can give the city its public space character, despite challenges of globalisation, increasing urban poverty, unemployment, uncontrolled population growth, an expanding middle class and other socio-economic factors, by reimagining abandoned open spaces within the city and in the process, initiate policy formulation regarding [public] spaces around and within developments. Two Architects delve into the topic by considering what role Architects can play in urban design in ways that ensure a successful co-existence of public recreation and transport within the built environment through their explorative ideas which culminate in the formation of, AVUCITYSPACE©. Ayssar Arida, Quantum City (Routledge), P. 109 Ibid P. 111