Budapest: Liberty Bridge becomes spontaneous public space due to construction

Budapest has long held a special place in my heart, more than just the home to my alma mater, Central European University. The city is incredibly beautiful and deeply creative when it comes to public space planning. It has an amazing bar scene that makes use of dilapidated buildings or unused lots, turning them into so-called ruin… Read More Budapest: Liberty Bridge becomes spontaneous public space due to construction

Berlin’s East Side Gallery: Urban Art & Old Memories

In December 2015, I spent several days in Berlin, Germany. It’s a beautiful city; but December is not its finest month. It was dark and dreary. Still, in a particularly Berlin way, it was also cozy, creative and colorful: bicycles strewn about, Christmas markets in full swing, and plenty of hot wine and cold beer to warm… Read More Berlin’s East Side Gallery: Urban Art & Old Memories

Pachuca, Mexico: Street Art City Champion

As a follow up on my blog post, Colorful cities: a little paint, a lot of pride, I wanted to share the transformation of Las Palmitas, a low-income neighborhood in Pachuca, in central Mexico. Through a project called Pachuca Paints Itself, 209 homes (20,000 m2) were transformed into a colorful masterpiece. Homes were individually painted, but together they… Read More Pachuca, Mexico: Street Art City Champion

Colorful cities: a little paint, a lot of pride

It’s amazing what a little color can do to warm up a  neighborhood, such as Buenos Aires’s La Boca neighborhood in Argentina, the multicultural Bo-Kaap neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, or San Francisco’s Haight Street in the US. Or painting a city’s centre as a canvas, such as in Valparaiso, Chile, Venice, Italy, or Guatapé, Colombia (image, left). Urban colors can… Read More Colorful cities: a little paint, a lot of pride

Not your average city bench: street furniture goes funky

Cities are places for not just for work, but also leisure. And designers understand this, offering creative alternatives to the classic city bench in public spaces. For example, how about waterfront hammocks, or swings while you wait for the bus? Or for lazy Parisian summer days, resting on a floating barge floating on The Seine? Or in… Read More Not your average city bench: street furniture goes funky