public – Design You Trust

SLAS Architects’ Innovative Design for a Public Space That Combines Leisure, Play, and Fitness

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What can you do with a concrete platform? A lot, if you ask SLAS architects, the Polish firm that designed a stunning public space under the name “Activity Zone in Chorzów”. Continue reading »

Inside Outside: Performance Art in Public Spaces by Thierry Mandon

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Thierry Mandon uses the video, the photography, the performance and the installation to express the poetic character of the everyday life, to make subtle transformations, where the spectator finds at the same time tragic and comic aspects of his existence. Continue reading »

Stunning Photographs Of The Old Cincinnati Library Before Being Demolished, 1874-1955

One of the large cast-iron book alcoves that lined the Main Hall.

Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County

Built in 1874 on the site reserved for an opera house, the Old Cincinnati Library was a thing of wonder. With five levels of cast iron shelving, a fabulous foyer, checker board marble floors and an atrium lit by a skylight ceiling, the place was breathtaking. Unfortunately that magnificent maze of books is now lost forever. Continue reading »

Handy Public Punching Bags Located Around Manhattan That Let New Yorkers Vent Their Frustrations


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donttakethisthewrongway, a design studio based out of Savannah, Georgia, installed a series of “Public Punching Bags” around Manhattan during their visit to New York City Design Week 2019. The idea was to give people a way to momentarily express their frustrations in a public place before going on with their day, hopefully feeling a bit better than before. Continue reading »

Quirky Interventions By Octavi Serra Question The Rules Of Public Spaces

Octavi Serra uses the structures and symbolism of public spaces to question the systems we live with and find humor in their details. The Barcelona-based artist often engages with signage to subvert its original meaning, like forming a massive arrow pointing left with safety stickers that all individually indicate to exit to the right, or adding opposite directives to a signpost for routes to “hope” and “doom”. Serra also questions strictures of space, like adding “the road is lava” to a painted crosswalk, referencing the universal childhood game, or replacing parallel parking space lines with nonsensical squiggles. Continue reading »

Hilarious Questions Posed To The New York Public Library Pre-Internet

Now that we have the internet, we have access to pretty much all the information we could ever need. Before there was Google, people used their local public library. And not just because libraries are full of books. Librarians were specially trained to help people find information, or to simply answer a question themselves. Featured below are some of the funniest examples. Continue reading »

These Hand-Knitted Sweaters Will Make You “Disappear” In Public Places

We‘re used to the popular opinion that clothes are often designed to make people stand out from the crowd. Not in this case though. Continue reading »

This Public Toilet At The Central Bus Station In Russian Voronezh Is So Romantic They Lit Candels In It

Public bathroom, it is usually a place that gives you a bad experience and you just try to erase it from your memory as soon as you get out of it. However at the central bus station in Voronezh, Russia, the public restroom has no electricity, water nor heating from the beginning of the year but they charge the fee around $0.25. Continue reading »

This Public Seating Installation Was Inspired By Snowbanks That Gather Around Trees And Street Lights

When it was a little more sunny and a lot less snowy in Quebec City, Canada, Atelier Pierre Thibault designed a public seating installation named Le Banc de Neige (The Bench of Snow). Inspired by the cooler months of the year when there is plenty of snow around, the designer wanted to recreate the snowbanks that gather around the trees and street lights. Continue reading »

Photographer Asked Celebrities To Reveal Their Public And Private Personalities In Intimate Double-Portraits

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Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

Everybody has a public and a private persona, and celebrities are no exception. You might think you know something about them because of all the films you’ve seen them in, but it’s only once they’re out of the spotlight that their true selves are revealed. Continue reading »

Chinese City Opens Awesome Five-Star Public Toilet

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People generally avoid going into public toilets, unless they absolutely have to. Most of them are dirty, uninviting places, but that’s definitely not the case with this recently opened five-star public restroom in Chongqing, China. Continue reading »

This Public Pavilion Covered In Plants Was Designed To Invite People To Sit Inside

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Urban living specialists, Space10, and architects Mads-Ulrik Husum and Sine Lindholm have collaborated to create “The Growroom” – a pavilion filled with naturally growing herbs, vegetables, and plants, designed to thrive in urban settings. Divided into sections around an open center and bench, the spherical multi-sensory pavilion encourages people to step inside and experience the uniqueness of food producing architecture in an engaging way, and interact with their food in ways they likely haven’t been able to before. Continue reading »

This Colossal Vessel Will Be A New Public Landmark In Manhattan In 2018

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Today, Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group announced that a new public landmark designed by Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio, will open in Manhattan in 2018. Named ‘Vessel’, the landmark building will be covered by a polished copper-colored steel skin, and is a space that will allow people to have an elevated view of New York City. Standing at 150 feet tall, it will have 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, 2,400 steps and 80 landings, that together will create a mile’s worth of pathway. It also has a diameter of 50 feet at its base, widening to 150 feet at its top. It’s currently being fabricated in Italy. Continue reading »

Outfits Sourced From German Public Transportation Fabric By Menja Stevenson

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Like most that read this article, German artist Menja Stevenson has had her fair share of rides in city buses and trains, each of which has forced her (and you) to sit on top of garishly designed uniform seating. The fabric, as investigated by this article on the BBC, is not only made to outlast spills and stains, but also trends, as many of the painfully drab designs can last a decade or more. Continue reading »

Public Pools Open In New York City For The Summer

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images North America

People enjoy a hot afternoon at the Astoria Pool in the borough of Queens on the opening day of city pools on June 29, 2016 in New York City.The main pool at Astoria, the biggest in New York City and administered by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, sees over 3,000 people on a typical summer weekday. Continue reading »

This “Story Pod” Is A Free-For-All Lending Library Designed For A Public Park

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On the edge of a recently completed civic square for the Canadian town of Newmarket, Ontario, Atelier Kastelic Buffey (AKB) have designed the “Story Pod,” a free community-supported lending library that is open to everyone.
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Artist Buys Abandoned Chicago Bank to Transform It into Public Arts Center

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Till recently, the 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) Stony Island Savings & Loan Bank on Chicago’s South Side was just an old, abandoned construction. Built back in the 1920s, it has been vacant since the 1980s and has remained in a deteriorating state for all these years. Who could imagine that this decaying structure would soon become an amazing art center? Continue reading »

‘The Infinite Green’ By Adam Kalinowski, Is A Public Sculpture Covered In Plants

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Adam Kalinowski has designed ‘The Infinite Green’, a sculpture that has been created as part of the visual art program of the European Capital of Culture in Wroclaw, Poland. Continue reading »

What Do You Think of this Dessert Themed Public Toilet in Japan?

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Photo by Yasunori Takeuchi, courtesy Toilennale

What looks like a giant cake, or possibly an ice cream sunday, stands in the street, connected to a park. This is a piece of art. But it’s also a public toilet. It’s both. As part of the 2015 Oita Toilennale, perhaps the world’s first art festival dedicated to toilets, artist Minako Nishiyama conceived of the project. And with the help of artists Mika Kasahara and Yuma Haruna, the 3 female artists brought “Melting Dream” to life. Continue reading »

An Architect In France Has Designed A Concrete Pool Table For Public Spaces

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French architect Gwendal Le Bihan, has designed Urban Pool, a concrete pool table for public spaces. Continue reading »

Tetris Inspired Urban Furniture Turns Public Spaces Into Playgrounds

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Open Code Urban Furniture – a construction set adaptive to the needs and wishes of different neighbourhoods. Instrumental in arranging a space for sharing (drawers installed). A series of open code urban furniture workshops are run in 4 Vilnius neighbourhoods in cooperation with the local residents. 4 furniture sets, 4 Vilnius neighbourhoods – and 4 different scenarios of use, to understand how public spaces and urban furniture work. The same basic set becomes different in each context. Continue reading »

The New London Hot Spots? Cafés That Used to Be Public Toilets

A trip to the toilet is usually not associated with sandwiches, wine, or dates, but that’s changing in London. With real estate at a premium and the repurposing of old spaces in full effect, a trend has emerged: former public restrooms are reopening as cafés, restaurants, and boutiques. That’s right, forget the advice about not eating where people used to, um …

London has all kinds of history, and that extends to its loos. Take, for instance, WC – that’s the actual name of the former Victorian-era underground-station toilet in South London that opened in July. It now stands for wine and charcuterie.

WC, a wine bar that opened in July, is housed inside an abandoned underground toilet, with original walls intact. Much of the old décor remains, with the original floor mosaics and wall tiles, and even some of the old toilets in the restrooms (those are for display only). As Time Out London said in its review, “Down the wide stairs it still looks and feels like a Victorian convenience, albeit a sanitised one.”

WC co-founder Jayke Mangion, told AFP that “the government has been pushing the councils to use all empty places to generate revenues.”

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Photo: AFP

If you want an even bolder toilet theme, just head to The Attendant in central London, where you can sit on a stool and have a salt- beef bagel while actually facing an original 1890s urinal. The toilet cisterns have been turned into flower pots.
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Four Month Old Northern Lynx Kittens get their First Public Outing

Northern Lynx kittens, explore their enclosure at the Highland Wildlife park on October 9, 2012 in Kingussie, Scotland. The feline twins are believed to be the type of lynx found historically in Scotland. The Highland Wildlife Park specialises in Scottish animal species, both past and present, and species that are well adapted to cold weather. In photographs by by Jeff J. Mitchell. Continue reading »

Traenenpalast Museum Opens To The Public in Berlin

A visitor looks at a display of video monitors once used by East German border police at the Traenenpalast museum on its first day open to the public on September 15, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The museum documents the history of the Friedrichstrasse crossing between East and West Berlin. Located at the end of an East Berlin subway line, it was the final point of departure for West Germans returning west after visiting relatives in the East, which earned the building the popular name Traenenpalast, or Palace of Tears. Border gaurds often subjected travelers to inordinately long waits and meticulous searches. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 separated families and friends overnight as the East German government mostly forbid its citizens from travelling west. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe) Continue reading »

New York’s High Line Sky Park is Open for Public




The High Line runs through three of Manhattan’s most dynamic neighborhoods: the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton. When the High Line was built in the 1930s, these neighborhoods were dominated by industrial and transportation uses. Now many of the warehouses and factories have been converted to art galleries, design studios, retailers, restaurants, museums, and residences.