Taking a look on our cities it seems a bit as if nothing serious had changed since the days Haussmann designed the modern Paris on the drawing table. Public Design still consists of the same elements: park benches, tram stops, trash cans, trees and city greens, playgrounds, water dispensers and many more. Ok… maybe telephone boxes had come later – but these are about to disappear as mobile phones will soon make it obsolete. Anyhow, nothing striking innovative here.

What has increased is the noise of traffic and the bang of blow-ups and citylights (or other forms of advertising). Moreover the public environment is increasingly transformed into a more private state. Students from the Köln International School of Design had some thoughts on these developments. In the project »From Vandalism to Fandalism« the students did research on the various ways a city is being vandalized and how much this vandalism could rather be an expression of »love« or respectively »fandom« to the city. They transformed existing urban destructions in ideas how to –partly radically– refurbish and redesign the city.

One idea we already reported about was »Guerilla Gardening«. Now on the finissage of the Rheindesign event in Cologne last Saturday they took off the gloves: without permission of the city the students started planting flowers on the Neumarkt, one of the big squares in Cologne’s city center. Others transformed ticket vending machines in a way that they suddenly started talking to the staggered customers.

But the best ideas keep it simple. One group reinvented street furniture: the »Public Pillow« is available all over the city like a »rent-a-bike« (or better rent-a-pillow) and can be used to easily transform public squares and places into seatings – just by putting it on the ground and sitting down on it. So the city dweller can decide on his own where he wants to rest and is not limited to public benches or cafés and restaurants. »This will elevate the relevance of the public sphere«, says Judith Dörrenbächer, one of the inventors. People could decide on their own which places to use for short breaks or relaxation and are not constrained to use ready-made spots. The group is now searching for cooperations with production companies so that they can produce their yet Conceptual Design and empirically test it on its practicability.

Public Design surely is something that designers should concentrate on in future as we are consequently influenced by it only when we step out of the door. Please let us know if you find other interesting Public Designs!