How to design open public spaces welcoming an heterogeneity of people, uses and practices? How to make a city capable of hospitality towards actuals and future activities? The French theory of Ambiance (Amphoux, Thibaud & Chelkoff, 2004), developed in the frame of architecture schools these last 40 years, invites us to pay attention to inhabitant expertises (Augoyard, 1979), to the situated ordinary practices and tactics (De Certeau, 1980; Whyte, 1988), and the entanglement of material, social and sensory dimensions in every urban experiences (Thibaud, 2015). Building on this theory, this paper address methodological issues in order to comprehend and design urban spaces that we could qualify as “open”: spaces capable of showing openness and hospitality to the experiences that one can (or could) do there. We will propose to take a closer look at the filmic approach set up to help collaborative urban design. Video recordings, if carried out with consideration, can offer a dynamic and sensitive representation of urban spaces, including practices unfolding at the same time as the material qualities of the place, which welcomes them (Brayer, 2016). More specifically, this paper intends to focus on the question of filmic reception: from a collective experience of reception, we believe that video can become the base of a dialogue between people who are invited to share about their own experiences of urban public places. Through this time of exchange, seen as part of the design process, it is ultimately about bringing out the multiple ways of perceiving and practicing a public space in order to collectively think about its future. This reflexion will be based on videos and debates made in a pedagogical frame (https://masterdesignurbain.wixsite.com/la-chose-publique).