"Old city centres have a special magnetism which attracts people"

• Adam Zagajewski

Adam Zagajewski speaks about the importance he believes old city centres have as magnets attracting life, thus giving him a feeling of permanency and calm.

"Public Space is political because it defines who can stay in and who is left out"

• Eric Fassin

Urban spaces, besides being public, are also political. They start out from the idea that all members of the public have access to it, but who has access to certain “public” spaces and who does not? 

"Bookshops are true social spaces of books"

• Georges Didi-Huberman

When the lonely task of the writer comes to an end, when the book is published and is being distributed, this is, for Georges Didi-Huberman, a moment when public space comes into being.

"It’s necessary to get people involved in the process of creating public space"

• Marina Tabassum

The architect Marina Tabassum, winner of the Aga Khan Award and recently included in the list of the "100 most influential people in the world in 2024" by Time magazine, reveals her favorite public space.

"Public space is a place to play out who we are as a society"

• Michael Kimmelman

Kimmelman draws attention to the symbolic nature of public space and emphasises the importance of ordinary spaces which are often unappreciated even though they are a true magnet attracting community life.

"Everybody who wants democracy should defend public space as space of everyone"

• Carolin Emcke

Carolin Emcke reflects on shrinking public spaces for people that are perceived as others and warns of proliferation of radical movements that are taking public space.

"The city must be made for pedestrians"

• Gaël Faye

Gaël Faye is a writer and rapper. At the age of thirteen he had to leave the city of his birth, Bujumbura (Burundi) and go to Paris, fleeing civil war and the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In a banlieue not far from Versailles he discovered rap and hip-hop. Faye has released two solo...

“The pavilion is just a piece of open infrastructure that offers possibilities”

Interview with Kuba Snopek and Tomek Świetlik, authors of Stage, Special Mention in the 2018 Prize

“Younger people want to change this place but by keeping its history”

Interview with Sascha Wienecke, co-author of Zollverein Park, Special Mention of the 2018 Prize