My first book is forthcoming from Princeton University Press, under their Island Press imprint. It explores the overlooked in-between spaces where everyday social life takes root.

I call these spaces residual commons: the stoops, porches, storefront edges, courtyards, sidewalks, thresholds, alleys, and other ordinary places where people linger, greet one another, gather, and slowly become familiar. They are neither fully public nor fully private. They often sit outside the formal categories of urban design, yet they carry an enormous share of everyday social life.

The book argues that these spaces form a missing middle of social infrastructure. They are not grand parks, monumental plazas, or programmed civic institutions. They are smaller, closer, and easier to miss. But in an age of global loneliness, they may be essential to understanding how cities help people belong to one another.

Across Santiago de los Caballeros, New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, Rome, and Berlin, the book follows how people use what is available to them — plastic chairs, stoops, courtyards, markets, storefronts, alleys, thresholds, and leftover land — to make collective life possible.

The project asks how urban designers, planners, architects, policymakers, and communities might better recognize, protect, and create the ordinary spaces where connection begins.

Research and collaboration

I am interested in hearing from people who know Santiago de los Caballeros, New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, Rome, or Berlin through lived experience, research, design practice, planning, architecture, history, activism, photography, or community work.

I welcome stories, site suggestions, local histories, research leads, interview connections, and conversations about the everyday spaces where people gather, linger, and build familiarity.

If you know a stoop, porch, courtyard, storefront edge, alley, market, threshold, or overlooked shared space that belongs in this conversation, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Share a research lead or get in touch by email at rafaelberges1@gmail.com