For this week’s design brief we were asked to come up with an idea for an Urban Public Space. These spaces were to be based around the idea of a connected society, and meant to encourage people to interact and become more involved with their city.
As part of the brief we were tasked with going to different areas of the city in order to conduct research into its existing public spaces. This enabled us to see what these areas were lacking in terms of interaction. This would provide us with inspiration in how to better utilise the space.
Along with my group I visited the City Quay. The area itself was surrounded by multi-purpose accommodation as well as places to eat making it an attractive area for those living in the city centre. It also has attractions such as the HMS Unicorn, which is the oldest British built ship still afloat, and the marina; which is set to see big developments in the future.
THE PROJECT – ENERGY GENERATING PLAYGROUND
My idea was to use fun and play to encourage people to interact with space. I targeted my use of public space towards children and their parents. I thought this was an interesting idea as it would allow the children to get immediate positive feedback and see how their fun was benefitting those around them (or annoying). I came up with the idea of a playground which would collect and store various types of energy and use this to power a device.
WHAT TO POWER?
I had various ideas of what device the children’s playground could power. My first idea and the one I ended up choosing, was for it to be a giant lightbulb. The more the children were to play and interact the brighter the light would become. This would also act as an incentive for people to go to the park just to see the giant light.
The light would store energy, and depending on the amount of activity on the rides during the day the light would become lighter or dimmer during the night. Allowing people to see how their interactivity has affected it once the day is over.
I thought it was a good idea to have this revolving around children as it relates to the idea of having fun, how we can generate green energy, and the fact that unused space can have a purpose. The light bulb also represents the children’s ideas and creativity.
HOW TO PLAY?
As for the play equipment in the playground I decided to use a slide, seesaw and a roundabout. I felt that these were the most effective ways of generating power, as well as the most accessible for children of all ages and abilities. The ‘Slide’ would collect static electricity from people using it, whilst the ‘Seesaw’ and ‘Roundabout’ would collect kinetic energy. I took some time to create some sketch models of each of the rides so I knew what to do when it came to my final model. I have also included some images of my alternate idea which was an ‘Interactive map’. This map could aid those who are new to the area and give the children’s parents a way of planning their journey.
Interactive Map 1
Interactive Map 2
Roundabout 1
Roundabout 2
Seesaw 1
Seesaw 2
Slide 1
Slide 2
THE FINAL MODEL
LOOKING BACK
I really liked the way my model turned out and felt that the use of strong primary colours would help it stand out in Urban spaces as well as appeal to children. This, in addition to the cartoonish size of the lightbulb would be a great public attraction and be a main visiting point for tourists in the area.
