Filed under: Design Process, Design Theory, Social Design | Tags: communication, design, Design Theory, dissertation, municipality, over-design, random thoughts, service, thesis, urban furniture, urban living
Now that I have finished with the thesis, the presentation and I am almost done with the poster, I have some time to think, reflect on what just happened. What did I learn, what did I do, if it was worth it, if something meaningful came out of it etc. Am I talking out of my arse? Am I in danger of losing the substance by looking through a microscope into something meaningless? Did I even set the basis for this “very important” co-production that I promised I would do? While all things are happening in this world, am I caught in this useless field that has nothing to offer to anyone apart from its actors, the design-obsessed world? I really hope not… Continue reading
Filed under: Design Process, Industrial Design, Social Design | Tags: design research, Design Theory, designers, exam, Industrial Design, masters, presentation, random thoughts, responsibility, thesis, urban furniture
Having to organise my presentation for the exam helped me realise and highlight some parts of my thesis. First of all, I have come to realise that the main three issues my project is about – with urban furniture as the main title – are What Is Done, What is the Actual Meaning behind the existence of urban furniture and What Can Be Done.
The first part is about what municipalities do when it comes to choosing and placing urban furniture in the city. What is their process in this project and what is the role of urban furniture in terms of service-provision, aesthetics and maintaining identity in the public landscape? Another issue though, which I have not touched upon, yet is very important, if not the most important part of this, is what do companies do to provide municipalities with responsible solutions. I will argue during the presentation that designers have lost it. Me being a designer myself, I feel that this is the whole reason why this project began in the first place. The observations I made surely had to do with the municipality’s arrogance in choosing urban furniture that THEY thought would look nice on the streets, but now I know that the problem is far deeper than that. Why do designers go astray? Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Social Design | Tags: character, co-ceation, co-design, co-production, conclusion, design tools, designers, dissertation, diversity, identity, Industrial Design, municipality, public engagement, thesis, urban furniture, visual communication, welfare system
This project has been an attempt to address the importance urban furniture holds in shaping a city. Everyday living brings us in contact with these objects, subtly taking part in our urban lives. Urban furniture has been characterised as the front office of a municipality providing services to its residents in the public landscape. They are elements of the city’s image and sometimes hold an important place in the overall image a city projects to its residents.
In doing so, this paper first investigated the case of Aalborg and then used Den Haag as an example of a city which uses urban furniture to create differentiation between districts. By examining urban design as a communicational tool for cities to express their uniqueness, it has discovered that cities today behave competitively towards one another, in a race to attract prospective residents who will increase their development and prosperity. Aalborg is at a critical time, especially since the recreation project was initiated, a project with the potential to change Aalborg’s identity for years to come. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Social Design | Tags: co-design, co-production, design, Design Process, Design Theory, design tool, designer, dissertation, empower, enable, future vision, IKEA, Industrial Design, involve citizens, Kit o'parts, proposal, public engagement, reflection, solution, thesis, urban furniture
Reflection
Designers gone astray and municipalities adding urban furniture to their shopping cart have suppressed industrial design from evolving its sociological character. Designers themselves have the same attitude and process on most industrial design tasks and inputs mostly concern the technological and production-line fields. As has been shown, there is a major sociological and aesthetical impact of urban furniture and it is up to future designers to enrich “the historical structure of the objects and reveal their various layers of intention.”
As urban furniture is amongst others the physical tool of a system, it is essential to define the actors of this system and through research configure habits, interactions and preferences. Since the functions of urban furniture are pre-determined (to dispose of waste, to sit down, to send a letter, etc.), the aesthetic expression according to the unique culture of each city is the subject under question. If any “artefact is first and foremost the fragile residue of memory crafted into a mental representation by an individual” and this individual is in this case the citizen of a city, they are to have the first say according to their lifestyle and not an external designer working for a company. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Social Design, Urban Design | Tags: aesthetics, city identity, design research, Design Theory, dissertation, Gillo Dorfles, image, Industrial Design, interaction, Kevin Lynch, Marshal Mcluhan, master thesis, perception, semiotics, sign, symbol, Urban Design, urban furniture, urban spaces, visual communication
In the first chapter of this paper, three areas of research were mentioned to frame the approach. The reasons for choosing these specific theories however, were not. Since this paper analyses the role of urban furniture and what that role can be (apart from the practical application examined in the previous chapter), the following section attempts to address the theory behind the three areas of research and combine those two successfully towards a coherent outcome.
There are innumerable theories and guidelines that have played a leading role for the development in urban and industrial design as well as visual communication, respectively. It is impossible to attempt to cover the entire range of all three in such a modest paper, not to mention that the focus of this paper narrows the research field. The theories selected in this chapter aim to explain how, from the broader initial theory to the more specific critical one (in all three fields), there are always some elements remaining the same: identity, diversity and the importance of the aesthetically pleasing as complimentary to the other two.
There is no intention to define urban design or to point out the “right” way of designing urban spaces. The theory is presented here to create some kind of flow from one design field to another and to demonstrate how they can be interrelated. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Urban Design | Tags: Aalborg, Bologna, branding, city image, creative class, creative spaces, Delft, Den Haag, dissertation, identity, image, Industrial Design, mapping, orientation, recreation, thesis, urban furniture, urban planning, urban spaces
In the following pages of this chapter, research into two cities is extensively presented: Aalborg and Den Haag. Near the end of the chapter, two more cities are mentioned briefly to identify the type of character they promote and to demonstrate how they project their image to themselves and to the outside world.
The section begins with a very brief description of the geographical position and comparable characteristics of the cities, moving from there to their respective histories. Their economic situations will follow and finally their current situation in general, meaning what their current development plans involve. The texts here are taken and modified from the cities’ branding and advertisements to attract people to the city as residents eager to take advantage of the new and exciting ways of life offered to them.
Interviews with members of the municipalities, either currently working on projects or able to provide information on the vision and identity of the city, follow. For this part, substantial research material was gathered towards understanding the cities’ development and their priorities, the competition between cities and their treatment of spaces and inhabitants.
Although the layout is seemingly top-down (beginning with general information and moving into specifics and facts on the ground), this was merely done for the reader’s benefit. Research began from observing the aesthetic result and moved on from there to investigate the reasons for it.
At the end of the chapter, there is a brief reflection, critically analysing the research conducted until that point and focused on extracting the essence of the image and the identity of a city. The location and focus on the importance of diversity and its expression, both intentionally and unintentionally, holds an important place in this project as well. At the same time, urban furniture will be inserted into this critique, evaluating its role and importance as it has been experienced. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Urban Design | Tags: christopher alexander diagram, context, design, design research, Design Theory, dissertation, form, framework, Industrial Design, master thesis, thesis, urban furniture
Although Arkitektur&Design’s curriculum aims to provide a strong practical background and, when it comes to specific semester projects, expects a practical outcome, a design, this project is a pure research paper. It concentrates on arguing the theoretical importance and attempts to define the significance of a specific field of industrial design—namely the design of public furniture.
To engage in worthwhile research, one must have an actual problem that needs to be solved. Once that problem has been determined, the researcher must find a corresponding question, which will isolate the main points of examination. After this focus has been made, there is a research problem that (after investigation and careful analysis) will direct the research to some kind of conclusion. This conclusion does not necessarily contribute to normative implementation, yet helps to address the problem by introducing theoretical aspects that need to be addressed one way or another. Combined research outcomes solve the whole.
The structure of any research project must be accurate and with a solid purpose; one cannot create a problem arbitrarily. The arguments will have to constitute logical support towards a realistic proposal. Especially when examining and criticising the urban furniture status quo, long-term institutionalisation is a significant factor to consider and it may inspire some to ask: “Why bother?”; “Do we really need research for this specific topic?”; or “Isn’t the present situation fine as is?”; ad nauseam. In the following pages of this chapter, precise reasons for this paper to exist will be explained as well as the overall approach, layout, and progress of thought. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Social Design, Urban Design | Tags: design, Design Theory, Industrial Design, interaction, introduction, perception, strategy, thesis, urban furniture
This paper has been put together in order to point out the significance of urban furniture in the environment of a city—in this case, Aalborg, Denmark. It argues that treating urban furniture as a mere decoration of the city is short-sighted and that industrial designers of the field should view this design task as something that requires time for research and responsible design—not for the company that will eventually sell the furniture to a municipality, but for the municipality itself as a social whole. Continue reading
Filed under: Social Design | Tags: critique, design, Design Theory, dissertation, Industrial Design, perception, thesis, Urban Design, urban furniture
I just finished writing the project and now my friend, a native english speaker, is editing it. From what he says, it is not that badly written…
I tried to keep the analogies of the text length to fit the points I was trying to make. For instance, the research on Aalborg was twice as big as the one on Den Haag, the theory section was as big as the research and the proposal was kept at a very basic level, simply framing what the overall idea of a solution was. All the diagrams were used during the first section of the paper, where I framed the approach and explained the guidelines I would follow. The research part was full of pictures from Aalborg, Den Haag, mapping of cities, Bologna and Delft and generally illustrations to stress the importance of the visual result of today. The theory section has diagrams here and there and they, all borrowed from the papers I found them in. The last part only has a diagram on the vision for the co-creative workshop. Continue reading
Filed under: Industrial Design, Social Design | Tags: challenge, city, design, public furniture, social, task, urban furniture, visual communication
Isn’t it logical to say that it is better to have uniform public furniture instead of 5 kinds of street lights and 3 different bins in a city’s main square? And isn’t it better, instead of having a Philippe Starck street lamp that nobody notices because of its bad positioning (not to mention the fact that most people don’t care who he is but they pay their taxes in buying this lamp for their city) to have urban furniture that people co-create? Co-create sort of speak, since I will only try and get a feel of the aesthetic image Aalborg has to the inhabitants… The funny thing is that they managed to get this design lamp, THIS ONE DESIGN LAMP! There is only one in the main square, or two I can’t exactly remember, but certainly no more than that. Only to say that “this is Philippe Starck and Aalborg has it!”. Maybe I have a problem with stars and authorities… Continue reading
Design For Thought 