Painted patterns turn ordinary sidewalks and other urban surfaces into geometric artworks, creating a level of creative interaction as well as domestic intimacy in public spaces.

European artist Ali (Arthur-Louis Ignoré) takes cues from ancient decorative rug design traditions as well natural and geometric forms from other ornamental sources.

Using simple white-on-gray, the drawings themselves can be simple at times, or playful. Their contrast with monotonous paving stones and asphalt brings dull areas to life with a bit of unconventional decor.

Some span entire alleys, streets or even rooftops, reaching up to 10,000 square feet in size, and spanning cities in France, Finland, Canada and the United States.

But while these larger works are impressive, there is something simple and subversive about sketching out, using simple lines and patterns, a little cozy place-making rug on a street for all to share.

These designs convey all of the diverse wonder of coral reefs without having to walk along an actual sea floor (and presumably slice open a foot in the process.

Porto-based Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragão crochets, weaves and latch-hooks her textiles with inspiration from coral, algae and fungi, often from exotic, remote and underwater environments.

Her works range from entire round Earths (and other abstracted planetoids) to small ecosystems constructed at 1-to-1 scale, creating a sense of visual realism without compromising creature comforts.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vanessa Barraga?o (@vanessabarragao_work)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vanessa Barraga?o (@vanessabarragao_work)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vanessa Barraga?o (@vanessabarragao_work)

Artist bio: “My name is Vanessa Barragão, I’m from the south of Portugal but right now I’m based in Porto. I took a degree in Fashion Design and when I was doing the master degree I started exploring more about handcrafted textile techniques and the wool process.” She then dedicated herself to “doing artworks such as tapestries using several techniques: latch hooking, crochet, weaving, knitting, basketry and felt.”

A truly magical carpet ride, this immersive project provides a shifting spectrum of colors and shapes that morph in response to user interactions, changing as visitors walk over the surface.

Thousands of patterns, pixels, cells and geometries are tied into an array of sensors, reacting to individuals and groups as they pass over the dynamic surface.

Commissioned by the 2016 Milton Keynes International Festival, Miguel Chevalier’s generative installation flows between a set of ever-changing landscapes with pieces that multiply, divide and merge.

The effects are triggered and amplified by users, whose perception of space changes and warps with the projections (vertigo sufferers beware).

The artwork is accompanied by a custom mobile sound installation by Ray Lee. If you missed this particular installation, no need to worry: Miguel plans to keep taking the shop on the road, unrolling the red (and green and blue and black and white) carpet for more audiences in other places.

Inspired by natural landscapes and crafted with carpet factory remnants, these labor-intensive creations are as much terrains as textiles. Alexandra Kehayoglou is an artist from Argentina who uses leftover scraps from the family business, a carpet factory in Buenos Aires, to build her wool room-wrapping creations.

Her use of materials mimics natural textures of natural moss, water, trees and ice, providing the functions of a traditional rug with a layer of artistic flair via memory-evoking scenery, often on creations that wrap vertically to become tapestries. The source material, she says, are the landscapes of her homeland, from grasslands to deserts, lakes to glaciers. They are richly-textured when on the floor, but gain additional dimensions as they wrap up walls or onto furniture, becoming more than just a horizontal surface.

Created by an architect and landscape enthusiast, this limited edition series of custom textiles derives its geometries and colors from aerial views shot around the world.

Florian Pucher, an Austrian designer now based in Beijing, has long traveled by day to take in as many sights from the sky as possible. Since 2007 he has collaborated with graphic designer Sophia Liu Bo to redraw and abstract images shot from above, turning them into unusual rugs using high-quality New Zealand wool.

Each LANDCARPET creation is 1 of 88, signed and numbered in the spirit of traditional artistic prints.

The subjects cover the globe, from Europe and the USA to Africa and Asia, urban settings to rural sites.

There is a rich variety from one to the next, showcasing an array of lines, curves, organic land forms, urban topographies, and other natural and man-made patterns and features.

Each edition takes approximately five weeks to produce, combining real depth and hand-tufted textures.

The source images range from aerial photographs and satellite images to maps and other views from above. His work as an architect exposes Pucher to all kinds of site maps, master plans and other inspirational materials.