In Public Space We Trust

From security infrastructure scattered in the urban landascape to urban design in the streets of Beirut: how to take public spaces back by repurposing control systems. A work by the sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi. Read the article on dezeen

osloBIENNALEN is evolving five-year programme of art in public space, where workshops, readings, concerts, symposia, and performances will offer an opportunity to rethink the parameters of art production, display, collecting and public outreach

#defensiveTO is a volunteer-based online mapping project to document the use of defensive design in the Toronto area. Hostile design is an intentional design strategy that targets people who use or rely on public space the most - like people who are homeless and youth - by restricting behaviours.

Do you know what San Francisco’s popos are? Privately owned public open spaces: located on rooftops, entrances, halls, rooms, they can be found all around the city centre, hosted in big companies and banks. People can go and eat their own food, study, have meetings, watch a movie, work, hang out.

**Soon there to report your suggestions! **

In the centre of Sao Paulo a former and abandoned mall has been transformed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, the brasilian architect who claimed that “the city is for everyone” and MMBB into a big cultural center and open hub: a Sesc (social service of trade) private brasilian institution that promotes citizens welfare. Public space becomes a tangible matter that enters buildings.

Torrelodones, in Spain, can now be proud of their colourful pedestrian crossings, realized by Christo Guelov, bulgarian street artist: how to fight everyday greyness.

Buenos Aires, Tavares Bastos Favela. When the space is limited, the necessary is defended.

What happened to picnic tables in public spaces? For Enorme, spanish architecture and design radical studio, they have been forgotten, and it’s time to play tribut to them. What can you do on/with/by a picnic table? In occasion of Festival Asalto they built together with students and professors Picnictopia, a stack of picnic tables and benches, just like a supernova landing in the public space of the school...

It’s called tactical urbanism: with a scarce amount of money and a temporary approach, the aim is to quickly transform squares, streets, blocks with few elements and mainly painting on the cement. Citizens are offered a new way of living the spaces and are empowered to become guardians of the transformation and to ensure its lasting. Here Porta Genova, the last one freshly inaugurated in MIlan. Get to know more with this guide!

Friends in Madrid, these are the last 2 days to chase the Humus! Organized by La Casa Encendida, Humus Revolution is a discovery of the urban garden around the city, oasis of biodiversity, of urban experimentation, where not only vegetables and human relations are cultivated, but also where new, more respectful ways of relating to the city are being tested, fostering sustainable mobility, environmental education and ecological consumption.

Portal de Palma in Barrio de Palma is a community participatory project led by Colectivo Warehouse: upside-down stools to rediscover the history of the neighbourhood.

How do we live well in cities – now and in the future? An open call by our beloved raumlaborberlin for A Festival of Creative Urban Living that will be held in Milton Keynes, an automobile wonderland, radical consequence of the 20th century dream of auto-mobility. Available budget: £12,000 | deadline: 24/04. Let’s design urban utopian thinking! more info here

Space10, a research and design lab supported by Ikea, open sourced the drawings to build a grow room, a urban farm pavillon and food producing arhcitecture. Here you can see it beautifully built at Singapore Urban Design Festival.

“Emergency plastic crates shelter” is a project by 3rd year students at the lebanese american university invastigating temporary structures built with every day common and costless materials. Assembled in about 7 hourse, 416 crates cover 14sqm building surface and can be easily built everywhere even by amateurs.

[Call for projects] Design for a change? Milan Design Week is also a great moment to reflect upon design and its role in our current society. What if it was a tool to make people feel empathically? Prospettive Variabili is looking for products, projects and researches that demonstrates how design matters when dealing with inclusiveness and how empathy is a powerful means of generating awareness and change. here all info

Homage to Alessandro Mendini, one of the most earthshaking italian designer, who died yesterday in Milan. Here his Misiad manifesto, 2011: Milano shall self product itself. The revolution of artisans, an human utopic practice of conquering collective space through tiny excellences and extra production.