A Modular Public Realm Prototype for Civic Life
EXIT is stoked o present the public exhibition of the Sideways Sculpture System. A novel form of civic infrastructure designed to transform underutilized public space into environments for gathering, recreation, creativity, and everyday social life.
The Sideways Social Sculpture sits between parklet furniture, sculpture, skate architecture, tactical urbanism, and civic infrastructure. Built as a flexible kit-of-parts, the system allows streets, plazas, storefronts, and vacant public spaces to become adaptable environments that support culture, play, performance, and community. Modular. Reversible. Human-scaled. Programmable.
Rather than treating architecture as a static object, the piece approaches public space as living social technology, Physical environments intentionally designed to cultivate participation and human connection.
Since 2019, EXIT has transformed vacant storefronts and overlooked urban spaces across Boston into active cultural venues, producing hundreds of exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public events that strengthen Boston’s cultural identity. The Sideways Social Sculpture extends this work into the public realm.
The project was developed by EXIT in collaboration with Harvard Graduate School of Design architects Sean Li and Yupeng Gao, and skate urbanist and New Balance designer Leif Hauge, whose collective expertise helped shape the system's architectural, material, and social dimensions.
Over the past several years, Franklin Street in Allston has become a testing ground for new approaches to civic activation. Working alongside the City of Boston, EXIT has explored how lightweight infrastructure, cultural programming, and community participation can work together to create more vibrant neighborhoods.
The result is an evolving prototype for cultural infrastructure. One that treats public space as an active platform for envisioning the future of civic life.
Skateboarding serves as an important philosophical and practical inspiration behind the urban design project. Skaters experience architecture differently. Rather than seeing the city as fixed instruction, we recognize it as an open field of possibility. Benches become stages. Movement becomes dialogue with the built environment. The Sideways Social Sculpture extends this way of thinking beyond skateboarding itself.
It asks how architecture might invite participation and social cohesion rather than merely accommodate it. How public infrastructure can encourage curiosity instead of prescribing behavior. How cities might become places that people actively inhabit, are inspired by, and grow with…not just move through.
To celebrate the public launch of the system, EXIT will transform Franklin Street into an afternoon and evening of movement, creativity, and community.
The exhibition will feature:
Best Trick skate contest. Arrive at 1pm to warm up. 2pm contest. ($500 cash prize)
Breakdance battle. 7 to smoke format. 430 pm warm up. 6 pm contst. ($500 cash prize).
Live hip-hop performances by Latrell James, Malik Elijah, Novian Wright. 7pm.
Open community gathering throughout the day
Together, these events activate the sculpture as it was fully intended, Not as static art object to observe, but as a sculptural container to hold relation.
The Sideways Sculpture System is ultimately a proposal for the future of public space. A future where cities invest not only in transportation, utilities, and buildings, but also in the cultural systems that make neighborhoods feel alive. Where flexible, human-scaled infrastructure creates opportunities for spontaneous interaction, and local identity formation. Where public space becomes a platform for participation. This exhibition marks the first full-scale deployment of that vision. And we hope other neighborhoods want a piece of the action.
We invite artists, skaters, designers, creatives, musicians, architects, civic leaders, neighbors, and anyone interested in the future of our cities to experience (and help imagine) what comes next.
