How often do we consider the availability of shared, public space in our daily lives? Governmental efforts in place--such as anti-homeless spikes, slanted bus benches, and timed sprinklers--are all designed to discourage use of already severely limited public areas. How we interact with space in a modern context, particularly in urban settings, can feel increasingly governed and blocked off from common everyday encounters.

With Common Space, activist and architect Stavros Stavrides calls for a reconceiving of public and private space in the modern age. Stavrides appeals for a new...