Strangers Need Strange Moments Together

Designing Interaction for Public Spaces Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, cofounders of the Montreal collective Daily tous les jours, invite fellow artists, urban theorists, policymakers and educators to take a joyful approach to building resilient urban communities and re-enchanting public space. In times of unprecedented pace of urban growth, with increasing loneliness and division, they shed light on the importance of moving beyond purely data-driven urban planning methodologies—which prioritize productivity, efficiency, and automation—and forging new modes of public interaction. Cities must be spaces for the whimsical, unexpected, and weird, and for the wasted time and strange moments of serendipitous encounter. Andraos and Mongiat use the raw material of the “daily everyday” to propose new models of living together in the 21st century, and to foreground the dimensions of life that characterize what it means to be human in the first place. Building on the work of thinkers like Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, and Jan Gehl, whose writings on the dynamics and social life of public spaces put the focus back on humans, this book is a journal, a series of case studies and engaging thinking. Designed by Studio Feed Published by Set Margins' Publishing, 2025 Softcover, 240 pages, full color + 1 PMS, 6.7 × 9.95 inches ISBN: 978-9-08-344985-2