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Elevate and Upheave the public experience

Introduction

Technology has miraculously enabled people to stay connected, informed, and entertained, almost everywhere. It is usual for someone to stare at their screens despite being surrounded by people in public spaces. Even though these spaces are designed to offer respite from the constant hubbub of urban life while fostering interactions between strangers. Social interaction is a way to communicate ideas, meet new people and share conversations in a social setting. However, this definition is changing with the introduction of new companions in the form of devices that accompany people everywhere we go. This raises the question of whether we have surrendered ourselves to devices that in turn isolate us from those around us?

Or conversely, is the real world not interesting enough?

Context

Wikipedia defines human-centred design (HCD) as “a design and management framework that develops solutions by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.” Our entire existence has been about involving the human perspective in all steps of the process, so is the technology we use. This core idea has also framed the cities we live in and homes we dwell in. When we get down to unfold the parts and pieces that surround us, we realised human-centred design is just an extension of this belief in both name and execution.

Issue

This connectivity continuum, at its outset, has enabled us to do more than what we could in the past. In a way, this has also implied that we can be present anywhere anytime without actually being there. The hyper-productivity mindset with passing time has eventually made humans more dissatisfied and caught up with things in the name of efficiency. And our feelings for the role of public spaces, in general, are no different from this fundamental idea. Its this similar mindset that propels the civic planners to squeeze in an extra office block, or a housing unit, or a road for quick mobility - instead of creating actual quality public space for plenty reasons - but mostly in the name of ‘efficient’ and ’cost effective’ city planning.

Does this mean our devices are getting better but our public spaces are not?

BRIEF

This competition thus enquired on the whole context and asked the participants to answer the following question through their design!

Design questions: What can we do for these outdated poorly performing public spaces/streets suffering from this quality crisis and outdated design? If we can’t break this connectivity continuum, how can we break the screen time for a short while to disconnect and reconnect, even for a few seconds? If not possible to break the screen time then how can we use these devices in our hands to make our public spaces relevant again?

Design challenge: The design challenge was to create an installation in the public realm, that can 'elevate' its people from these busy streams of thought / break their long screen time / introduce an element of play in their busy urban lives.

The term ‘elevate’ was stated here metaphorically and is open for interpretation by the participants. This activity/function/installation could be a permanent/temporary / or just a minor functional deviation every day that can brighten city lives even in the most unplanned places.

Objectives

The following objectives were given as points of beginning to conceive this design. Participants were supposed to assume their contexts and audience before initiating their design process.

Lively: Should be a vibrant part of the streetscape

Inviting: Should be open/accessible for people to be a part of.

Relevant: Uses fun / fresh / digital mediums to engage.

Inclusive: Should be able to connect a wide age group.

The best projects of this competition are as follows :

Winning Project: Under The Skin

By: Rachel Sau

Description: Under The Skin is an interactive musical installation that invites people to take a pause from their digital realm and be present in the physical world by having them explored and engaged physically with the sound and movement of the installation with others. It also invites people to awaken their inner child, to elevate their sound beneath the skin.

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Runner-Up: PROP

By: Christopher Green & Rahman Ismail

Description: PROP utilizes a universal approach in that it applies to any scaffolding system. It is a people-driven project as we strive to regain our public space. It gives citizens and organizers the capacity to take an under-utilized space and create a memorable experience.

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Runner-Up: OUR INFINITE CONSEQUENCE

By: Veronica Vacaro & Roberta Sinesio

Description: This project seeks to promote a space for reflection on our scale and our role in the collective space. An experience where visitors see themselves in infinity to perceive their place, their actions and therefore their consequences. Space only exists in our presence, that is, it exists only because of our presence.

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People’s Choice: Fore^t De Poche

By : Anita Stankova & Sehr Gupta

Description: Creating an oxygen chamber using elements from nature, and creating a micro-climate within, along with raising awareness regarding pollution are the main objectives of this natural walkway. The installation is a self-sufficient module, that produces its electricity, and focuses on highlighting sensory experience within the design.

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People’s Choice: CUBE(ish)

By: Selen Karadogan, Mert Akay & Ecem Kutlay

Description: People are in a rush between their homes and workplaces. They sometimes miss the opportunity to pause, look around and feel good. At this point, in-between spaces (between home and workplace) in cities draw attention. Our concept is an in-between space that creates an escape point from the daily rush.

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Editorial Choice: ARCADED MID-AIR

By: Feiyi Bi & Xinyu Yi

Description: ARCADED MID-AIR encourages people to climb away from everyday life to fragmented leisure time. Isolation between the city and its inhabits exists due to the side effects of fast development. The scaffold arcade installation functions as vertical urban furniture to elevate people?s experience in public, and to re-connect them with the physical environment.

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Editorial Choice: THE GAP - City APP for the public

By: Wenpeng Bi & Yi Zhong

Description: Our city is changing into a highly-connected machine thanks to the 'high-efficiency technology. People rely so much on mobiles for the reason that they are the terminals of the huge city device. Sadly, our public space turns into a gap in the 'network' gradually. How can we help our public space keep up with the development of the whole city system?

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Editor's Choice: Maze Intersection-Back of the order in urban spaces

By: Wenqi Wu, Zhao Meng & Yang Wenhao

Description: The purpose of the device "Maze Intersection" awakens people's initial perception of space, and still find the direction to the exit in the fog. It is a true portrayal of reality, and it is also a reflection of the real world. It is also expected that people in it can find an exit instead of being trapped in it or returning from the original road.

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Editor's Choice: Tropos

By: Evangelos Polykandriotis, Giulia Arienzo & Shiri Dobrinsky

Description: Tropos is an aerial prototypical system based on the idea of atmospheric architecture. We propose a model for an airborne infrastructure that is dynamic, autonomous and agent-based to generate new spatial experiences in the city that challenge the relationship of architectural quality and permanency.

Conclusion

This competition offered the participants to interpret the context of urban spaces from their eyes using various lenses. They designed an installation in the public realm that can elevate its people from these busy streams of thought, break their long screen time and introduce an element of play in their busy urban lives.

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows:

Christopher Gammons, Principal, HMWhite, United States

Rok Žnidaršič, Co-founder, MEDPROSTOR d.o.o., Slovenia
Juan Mullerat, Principal, PlusUrbia LLC, United States
Scott Ibbotson, Associate Director, Turf Design Studio, Australia

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