Architecture has historically played a significant role in configuring the public realm by defining how societies shape their physical environments, and how individual citizens and communities interact with each other. In that, architecture has served not only functional but also symbolic, cultural and political roles that reflect the values and priorities of urban communities, societies and nations. In recent years, this historic role of architecture has been contested due to numerous challenges: first and foremost, due to the economic rationale of architectural practice and its close ties to the global flows of capital, consumerism, and also to the evolving concept of the ‘public good.’ Additionally, challenges with environmental sustainability, social equity, heteronormativity, and privatization, to mention but a few, add to the debate about the public role of architecture. This course takes an enthusiastic as well as critical stance and proposes that architecture indeed plays a key role in conceptualizing, designing, and realizing the just city whose public realm –including buildings but not limited to them– is organized around a redefined notion of both ‘publics’ and of ‘public goods.’ Through class readings, walking tours, guest lectures and films, we will ask: what is the public role of architecture? How do we define what we mean by the ‘public realm’ today? What kinds of ‘public goods’ can architecture deliver? Is designing the public realm to be understood as a political act? Can architecture act as a catalyst for the democratization of the public realm, and as an agent of critical urban transformations? What is the relationship between architecture and the just city? What can I do about all the above as a designer?