Attention to public spaces has become a worldwide phenomenon—from Chicago’s high-budget Millennium Park to Rotterdam’s Westblaak Skatepark to Japan’s Roppongi seating project. And this resurgence of interest has led to new relationships between artists, architects, designers, and local authorities. Behold some of the most innovative, interesting, and diverse examples, in this first book dedicated to the subject. There are squares and plazas, streetscapes and promenades, gardens and parks, and more—including a temporary Parisian beachside near the Seine, an English bus stop that actually sings to the people waiting, and a wasteland transformed into a “Mountain of Hope” in Soweto, South Africa. Many of the projects challenge accepted notions of how communal spaces should function and look, and taken together they provide an illuminating global overview.

Attention to public spaces has become a worldwide phenomenon—from Chicago’s high-budget Millennium Park to Rotterdam’s Westblaak Skatepark to Japan’s Roppongi seating project. And this resurgence of interest has led to new relationships between artists, architects, designers, and local authorities. Behold some of the most innovative, interesting, and diverse examples, in this first book dedicated to the subject. There are squares and plazas, streetscapes and promenades, gardens and parks, and more—including a temporary Parisian beachside near the Seine, an English bus stop that actually sings to the people waiting, and a wasteland transformed into a “Mountain of Hope” in Soweto, South Africa. Many of the projects challenge accepted notions of how communal spaces should function and look, and taken together they provide an illuminating global overview.