Designing for Public Life, Dialogue 1: Searching for Superpublics

In the opening conversation of the series Designing for Public Life: The Dialogues, Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA, of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Ivi Diamantopoulou, AIA, and Jaffer Kolb of New Affiliates will reflect broadly on the question “what era of public space are we in now?” Following Hurricane Sandy and the pandemic, new large-scale forms of public realm are emerging. There is a pressing need to reconstruct New York City’s perimeter, and we’re seeing new public programs interwoven with coastal resilience. Across the city, pedestrian public places are appearing among open streets newly interlinking communities. Overgrown railway easements are being recaptured as extensive urban trails. And seasonally appropriated streetside parking spaces host vast and distributed networks of outdoor dining. Alongside many other prototypes, these diverse infrastructures for public life connect across neighborhoods, originating under a non-traditional variety of city authorities. They are often catalyzed and maintained with community activism.

Diamantopoulou, Gilmartin, and Kolb, who are collaborating on the upcoming fall exhibition Searching for Superpublics at the Center for Architecture, are passionate and deeply curious about how public spaces are gathering and collecting across the city right now, how designers are participating in their creation, and how these new forms of connective space are refiguring the nature our shared civic, social, and cultural life.

Speakers:
Ivi Diamantopoulou, AIA, Co-founder, New Affiliates
Benjamin Gilmartin, AIA, Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; 2025 President, AIA New York
Jaffer Kolb, Co-founder, New Affiliates