Linking Public Spaces

You have been hired to create a system  / interactive installation that connects two or more public but distance-separated physical spaces. The intention of these spaces is to encourage serendipitous interaction between distant people who move through those spaces. Any kind of interaction is good: conversation, playing games, even simulated physical activities. The system can be purposeful (i.e., task oriented interaction) or artistic (i.e., sensual interaction) or both.

You have a large budget for both the materials you need as well as the people you can hire. You also have the freedom to change the architecture, the physical design of the space, as well as the furniture as long as it fits within its physical constraints. Your design should include something that will motivate why people will begin these interactions across these spaces.

Finally, you have the freedom to choose whatever kind of public space you want to connect. Examples are included below.

1. A company has two buildings, each with a large atrium on the ground floor. People go through these atriums on their ways to the elevators. The atriums are currently designed as places to linger and to converse with others: they have large plants; they contain seats, tables and benches; they have good (not elevator) music piped into them. A day care and a small cafe abuts both atriums. Within this context, the company wants to encourage casual social interaction between strangers or people who probably don't know each other.
2. A company has several small branch offices in several cities. Because people usually travel between these offices, most are acquaintances. Each office has a well-equipped coffee / lunch room, and they want you to design something that will let people interact socially across these rooms.
3. An urban planner is responsible for enhancing town squares in two very different cities: one in Calgary (e.g., the Olympic Plaza) and another in Khatmandu, Nepal. She wants to encourage cross-cultural awareness and interaction between people across these town squares.
4. An urban parks planner who is enhancing small forested parks containing benches for sitting and reading, and children's playgrounds wants to create a situation where both adult and children visitors can individually converse with adults and children in the other parks.
5. A company who leases rooms for distance learning wants to encourage interaction by co-located and distant attendees both before and after the formal lecture.

Process.

• You may work in groups of two or threes.
• Start by brainstorming. In effective brainstorming:
  • one person acts as scribe
  • all people list as many ideas as they can
  • all ideas are written down, whether good, bad, ridiculous, or inspirational
  • ideas are not evaluated and/or discussed at the time: the important part is to get as many ideas as possible
• Go through these ideas. Discuss them, and see which are worth pursuing. Combine ideas.
• Using your sketchbook, create a vision for several ideas
• Work on the more promising ones by elaborating their details.
• Ask whether the ideas would work: would people actually use the system as you envision it?
• Present your best ideas to the class. Listen to other ideas.
• Use these other ideas to inspire your thoughts of your own idea. Based on those, recreate your idea into a new form.

After this exercise, I will show you several ideas created by others.