Rosie Niven

One of the most eagerly anticipated government announcements is where the proposed eco towns will be located.

Even as I write, civil servants could be whittling down the 57 bids to a final ten. The government’s criteria for these proposed settlements of 5,000 or more, includes a strong emphasis on their carbon neutrality. But at a conference yesterday, a Dutch academic threw something else into the mix – which I’ll call the ‘smoochability’ factor.

According to Arnold Reijndorp of Amsterdam University, there is a simple question that developers of new settlements should be asking: Can you kiss in a new town? He suggests that people kissing in public in a new town tells you a lot about how successful the place has become.

The question was first posed in a novel by the German writer Brigitte Reimann, which documents social isolation, indifference and violence on modern housing estates. But for Reijndorp this question has a relevance to the work of architects and planners too.

Reijndorp’s question gave other delegates food for thought. Biljana Savic, senior enabling advisor at CABE, said that kissing required a high degree of anonymity. ‘Public spaces would have to generate enough of a crowd,’ she said. ‘This is where many of the new towns failed.’

Time will tell whether this become the acid test of a placemaking success or failure. Perhaps we’ll soon see planners and developers lining the public realm making notes on couples’ behaviour.

So next time you’re enjoying an intimate moment with your other half in a public place, you may find that you have an audience.