However, public spaces can also be indoors. “These interiors can be both functional and aesthetic,” Striukienė said.

“Think of health service establishments, for example. A well-executed professional interior design can even have a positive effect on the patients. It can relieve their stress and put them in a calmer state of mind.”

In fact, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, the co-founder of the architecture firm Snøhetta, argues that architects must begin considering indoor space just as public as outdoor space.

“Maybe with the sole exception of railway stations, public space is generally understood as outdoor space,” Thorsen wrote. “Whether in the United States or in Europe, especially now with heightened concerns around security, there seems to be this determined way of privatizing everything that is indoors, even as we are increasingly aiming to improve access to public space outdoors. But in the layered systems of our cities of the future, we will need to focus on the public spaces that are found inside buildings—and make them accessible.”