For many years, the model for successful urban life has been the noise, disorderliness and messy mix of people and traffic of SoHo, New York.

Alongside, creative expression has denied linearity and minimalism: be it ironic, awkward Britart, whimsy, casual Goldfrapp, feature-length social documentary film-making, the chaos of social networking and exotic packaging of securitised debt.

And yet we're choosing to scrape the surface of many of the public places in our towns and cities and turn them in to clean, clear and crisp savannahs of pavement.

In its wake has come outdoor food courts, not street markets and a sweep of public control orders that segregate access to the streets.

An irony is that all of this has been done in the name of winning back public space.

Another is the derision that once greeted minimalist art in '70s and '80s.

A third is that all of this plaza-making is set on being regenerative.

Why is the new public realm so impersonal and out of sync with the grind, mess, whim and float of popular culture - and of our lives?

And how and why did the cult of de-clutter take hold?

Here's a quick list of some of the things that might have got us here:

• The cult of Copenhagen and pedestrianisation of the city
• The stream of sparse, ambient, Nordic music running through the veins of the design profession
• The massive, hidden influence of chic interior designers
• The apolitical lure of an empty stage
• The rise of de-clutter and home cleaning TV shows
• Our un-ending anticipation - and expectation - that something big's about to happen

The problem is that quite often in these places, nothing big does happen.

It's as if city developers skipped the chapters in the urban design manuals of Jane Jacobs, Wiliam Whyte and Jane Jacobs that said that "designed" public spaces will be empty of people most of the time if a user population doesn't live near by.

So is it time for the script to move on?

Is it time for urban designers and their clients to take all of that brilliant new energy and enthusiasm for public space, look at the popularity of certain contemporary artists like Peter Doig and realise something simple?

That what we like and what often works is not just tidy stuff but experiences and images that are colorful, casual and awkward?