How Cities Change Us: When Architecture Becomes a Shared Ritual
During a recent visit to a large North American city, it was striking how sealed off the landscape is. Concrete everywhere, of course, skyscrapers defining the city center. Older buildings from the 1970s and 1980s with lots of glass and concrete in between. Uninviting streets and houses. The cityscape makes it look more like an industrial location than a city that invites you to sit down and enjoy a coffee.
The architecture of towns influences us in every matter. Photo: Slow Culture Cafe, 2025
Public Access as a Path to Belonging
That's how it was usually built, by the big investors who determine the cityscape, who have to build apartments in offices so that the business model of renting, selling and making money in the long term works. A property management company, the janitor, a man at the door receiving packages, the cleaners, the taxi drivers—they all earn their living this way.
Than, driving down from the 52nd floor in a large elevator with lots of marble on the sides. I try to find my way out through the dark, huge, humid corridors. There is a hairdresser on the left at the entrance to the building, and the security company employee is staring blankly at a screen. In the background, a radio is playing quietly, and the hosts of a sports radio show are heatedly debating the previous day's baseball results.
Climate change and the general desire for a high quality of life are affecting both large and small cities. We are trying to find new ways of living together, and the architecture of a city plays a decisive role in this.
We often think of cities as static—steel, glass, and gridlocked traffic—but the truth is, the architecture of towns influences us in every matter. And nowhere is this more visible than in how architecture creates (or denies) public access.
From libraries to plazas, adaptive reuse projects to open house festivals, urban design is increasingly being reimagined around human connection and cultural inclusion. Once exclusive spaces—like private buildings, abandoned factories, or even old train stations—are being transformed into centers of community life.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025, themed SHIFT, is a perfect example. Rather than hosting traditional museum-style exhibits, this year's edition centers on accessibility and activation: turning the city itself into the exhibition. Pop-up installations reclaim public schools, underused lots, and transit spaces—inviting residents to step into design as a lived experience. SHIFT doesn't just show architecture; it uses it to ask: who gets to belong in the city, and how does design include—or exclude—that belonging?
Transparency and Ritual in the Urban Everyday
One of the quiet revolutions in contemporary architecture is the emphasis on transparency. With the use of materials like glass and an open design philosophy, the building invites its visitors to participate not only as guests but also to realize all their needs within the building transparently. Architecture becomes less about statement, but a ritual. Everyday moments, like walking, waiting, having a coffee, or a conversation with someone else, are transformed by thoughtful design into shared experiences.
Open House London embodies this perfectly. For one weekend every fall, the city's architecture becomes radically transparent—quite literally. Normally closed civic buildings, artist studios, places of worship, and heritage homes swing open their doors. People flood into the bones of their own city, discovering not just spaces, but stories, histories, and future possibilities. The ritual of exploring your own city as if for the first time reshapes how citizens relate to it.
When cities center transparency, when design is open and public—not hidden behind bureaucracy or elitism—it invites trust. It says: You belong here. Your footsteps matter.
The Next Generation Of Architecture
In both Chicago and London, we're seeing a shift from monument to movement, from structure to story. Cities are no longer just places to live—they're invitations to participate.
The future of architecture isn't just building for people—it's building with them. As cities become more collaborative, adaptive, and transparent, they don't just change skylines—they change us.
