This paper sets out to compare public spaces at two locations with different identities and characteristics, one located at the urban waterfront and the other located in the peri-urban suburban land of Malmö city. The purpose is to manifest what constitute the urban planning strategy of Malmö in the first decade of 21st century and how the guidelines of detail plannings embody and characterize the planning strategy. So far, the focus of the urban planning strategy of Malmö has undergone several changes since the comprehensive plan in the 1950s. After entering into the new millennium, the attention of Malmö’s urban planning strategy was paid to the attractiveness of the city, integration of social life, regional center development as well as sustainable issues, and the pace of Malmö ‘s change has once again picked up speed after several ‘silent’ decades. Different detail plannings which follow this vision are still on the way. But how do the design guidelines differ when applied to varied sites within Malmö city? The study focuses on public space and the social life there. It is acknowledged that life in public space is influenced by the use of buildings and the interface between public and private. A comparative study on two developing sites in Malmö is conducted as the strategy to analyze how the public space and social life consequently are characterized by the specified contexts, by the means of observation as well as comparing maps and plans of each site. The two selected sites are respectively Västra Hamnen representing urban waterfront and Hyllie which represents the suburb of Malmö. By comparing the two cases from different aspects, it is suggested that, even though developed within the same period of of Malmö’s development and with similar strategies like sustainable approach and improving inhabitants’ living environment, urban waterfront and suburb express different appearances at most aspects. The comparison shows that Västra Hamnen has the characters of combining various activities in its public spaces attractive to a range of people, with higher priority to pedestrians and cyclers and with the vicinity to the city center, etc. Meanwhile, the longer distance from the city center does not cut Hyllie away because of its good tunnel connection and car friendly planning. But the public spaces express more efficiency than enjoyment as Västra Hamnen provides and the attraction is associated to the events organized from time to time.