#public-space

#public-space

From Venice, where the 19th Architecture Biennale concluded with debates on material use and long-term cultural impact, to international awards foregrounding regenerative and socially responsive design, the conversation around architecture is increasingly intertwined with planetary priorities. Major urban interventions, from Thessaloniki's seafront redevelopment and Rio de Janeiro's new public library, to Abu Dhabi's Natural History Museum and a civic stadium in Birmingham, demonstrate how multiple cities are addressing mobility, heritage, density, and climate resilience.

What makes this project so interesting is how it completely ditches the traditional opera house playbook. You know the type: imposing facades, grand staircases that separate the cultured elite from everyone else, buildings that basically scream "not for you" to anyone walking by. BIG's approach flips that script entirely. The 450,000-square-foot building is designed as what they call "a public building within a park," where the roofscape is fully walkable and the structure has no defined back side.

Public spaces remain some of the most dynamic sites for unbuilt architectural experimentation, revealing how cities and architects can imagine accessibility, gathering, and civic identity. In this curated Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected proposals examine parks, pedestrian corridors, cultural landscapes, and open-access urban environments that invite people to meet, move, rest, and participate in collective life. Rather than treating public space as leftover terrain, these projects position it as essential infrastructure-shaping urban health, memory, and social interaction.

With Palazzo, Benthem Crouwel Architects completes the Paleiskwartier in Hertogenbosch - a robust, warm, and open residential building that literally embraces the city. Commissioned by BV Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Paleiskwartier, Palazzo marks the culmination of more than thirty years of urban development around the Central Station - an area where living, working, and meeting converge. Palazzo brings the whole together and gives new life to the district. The building deliberately faces the city, creates space for the square, and invites people to connect.

At the heart of the Historic Jeddah Waterfront Regeneration Initiative, the Culture Square stands as a bold statement of renewal, an intersection where memory, art, and urban transformation converge.

CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) in collaboration with THISS Studio and Orient Productions have completed an independent outdoor community arts space in Cairo, located in Giza's Agouza Children's Park, one of the city's few remaining publicly accessible green spaces. Titled Pergola and perched close to the Nile river front, the bright red, ten-metre tall structure offers a new beating heart for an emerging cultural scene in Cairo.

Today, as global challenges demand more adaptive and human-centered responses, architects are rethinking what infrastructure can be: not just a framework for movement and utility, but a catalyst for ecological restoration, cultural continuity, and civic imagination. The following unbuilt projects, submitted by the ArchDaily community, explore this expanded role of infrastructure, where airports, bridges, industrial parks, and pedestrian networks become architectural

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch's fact-free crackdown on e-bikes continues - and the agency has finally released some of the numbers to amNY (believe me, we've been asking). No surprise: The Upper East Side, where Tisch's mother has made her opinion well known, leads in enforcement. The amNY editorial board obviously read Streetsblog, commissioning an op-ed from two Council members and a city labor leader to support a Council bill to rein in Amazon that we wrote about last month.

The public square outside North Acton tube station is set to undergo a makeover to address local concerns about its appearance. The square is fairly new, as it used to be a petrol station. However, between 2015 and 2019, the site was cleared and converted into a public square, featuring steps and a ramp leading down to the station. Now, Ealing Council has started work on some upgrades, including the addition of better lighting and a row of "shed" shops, which will be rented out.

Car-centric planning has hollowed out our cities. Zoning regulations, freeways, and cheap fuel gave rise to sprawling suburbs and isolated communities, dependent on personal vehicles for even the most basic tasks. It's a system that punishes the poor, marginalizes the elderly and disabled, and makes public life thinner and more precarious. The car promised freedom, and delivered debt, pollution, and dependence.

Marginalized in architectural discourse and often dismissed as purely functional, parking garages remain among the most ubiquitous structures in the urban landscape. Designed to accommodate the needs of private vehicles, they occupy central locations, shape skylines, and consume considerable resources, yet rarely receive the same attention - or architectural care - as cultural institutions, schools, or housing. Despite their prevalence, these buildings tend to fade into the background of daily life, treated as infrastructural necessities rather than as design opportunities.

Mohammad Hassan Ettefagh + 23 Category: Public Space, Metro Station Design Team: Mehrasa Nikookar Structural Engineer: Mohammad Panahi Facade Engineers: Behnood Gooharbin, Masoud Gooharbin Project Definer: Seyed Saeed Mirhosseini Site Supervisor: Mohammad Khavarian General Constructing: Mehdi Firoozi More SpecsLess Specs Mohammad Hassan Ettefagh Text description provided by the architects. The metropolis of Tehran once featured a livable and low-density historic core, which, following the Iranian Revolution, underwent unbalanced and unchecked expansion due to population growth and centralized policies.

This month, Nadin Reschke will show her piece 'Lila Fetzen ("Purple Scraps")' at U Schönhauser Allee, which commemorates the officially unrecognized East German womxn movements, especially the Lila Offensive, which was founded in Prenzlauer Berg in the late 1980s. It uses historical photographs as a starting point for a search for solidarity-based gestures of resistance and the visibility of contemporary queer life. In a collective performance on September 20th at 3pm, the womxn's resistance of the 1980s is updated against the backdrop of today's experiences.

The Old City of Fongshan County, the oldest preserved walled city in Taiwan, reflects over two centuries of socio-economic change. In line with the client's goal to regenerate the site, an elevated walkway was implemented to maintain minimal visual and physical footprint while enabling modern exploration. This walkway, with its varied design, adapts to different needs along the city wall and integrates design elements into a single linear structure.

Playgrounds are not peripheral spaces of leisure; they are political constructs shaped by specific ideologies about what childhood is and how it should unfold.

"The new esplanade is a cornerstone of our vision for Halletts Point. This space opens up a stretch of Astoria's shoreline that has been inaccessible for decades, while offering a meaningful, immersive connection to the natural landscape."

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres emphasized that without individualized intervention, the city risks merely relocating problems rather than addressing the systemic issues causing open-air drug trafficking.

Contemporary Mexican market architecture often incorporates principles from pre-Hispanic markets, utilizing public space and structured layouts to facilitate commerce and community interaction.

The river in question, the Pader, is the subject and setting of this year's edition, curated by Marijke Lukowicz and Sophia Trollmann: the shortest in Germany.

The complex marks Heatherwick Studio's first project in Thailand, located in Bangkok's Silom district on the historic site of the original Narai Hotel.

As the climate crisis throws its destructive effects ever more fully in our faces, cities during heatwaves are their own type of ground zero.

"We propose to create a lively village that reinterprets the diverse texture of the neighborhood, by combining supportive housing and resident amenities with community and public space."

Bedfords Park, a 215-acre green space, has a rich historical significance dating back to the 1400s, originally part of the Gidea Hall estate owned by various wealthy families.

The annual Summer Streets program will return this summer with 22 miles of car-free streets, promoting outdoor activities across all five boroughs of New York City.

The introduction of a lift into the 19th century Montijo Municipal Gallery was pivotal, transforming accessibility and leading to the creation of an integrated 80 m² garden, enhancing public engagement.

"I did double check, and I'm very, very satisfied," Ford said, firmly asserting confidence in the deal despite concerns about Therme's misrepresentation during the bidding process.

In its current form, the site has been reconfigured using salvaged elements to create seating, shelter, and gathering space, addressing the lack of public infrastructure in Frihamnen.

...the space becomes the art. In collaboration with curator Natalia Grabowska of London's Serpentine, the installation breathes fresh life into the familiar framework of the fair's architecture, creating something between sculpture and spectacle.

The number of IKE Smart City kiosks on Berkeley sidewalks doubled last year, from nine to 22, showing increased visibility and user engagement despite criticism.