Critical Justification Street Furniture Barney Parsons
CJ
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Homelessness Can we use street furniture in urban environments to alter the perceptions of homelessness and give the public a more empathetical view towards their situations and improve how they interact with them?
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How to Read this Book Aim of activity Insight Comments and feedback Problem
Contents 07 14 24 36 84 98 114
Introduction Existing Street Furniture Concept Ideation Concept Exploration Positive Social Furniture Concept Iterations Reflection
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16_01_17
01 Introduction Aim of Project Exploration Summary Project Timeline
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Aims of Project This project will be Affirmative Problem Solving Provide Answers Design for production Design as a solution How the world is Change the world to suit us Science fiction Futures Narratives of production Applications Innovation Consumer Makes us buy User friendliness
Phillips
With this project I plan on using critical design to highlight the structural and social problems associated with Homelessness, being critical of our hostile architecture and the social tendencies to ignore and exclude the homeless.
Dunne & Raby
Critical Problem finding Asks questions Design for debate Design as a medium How the world could be Change us to suit the world Social fiction Parallel worlds Narratives of consumption Implications Provocation Citizen Makes us think Ethics
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Exploration Project Summary Visiting Services
Workshops
Ouseburn Farm Furniture Restoration Project Crisis Skylight & Cafe Tyneside Foyer
House and home PHDT Street Furniture Tyneside Foyer Northumbria Design
Interviews
Street Presence
Rough sleeper Service user Volunteer Placement coordinator Service manager
Public Perceptions Challenging Stereotypes
Insights & Perceptions Fear and exclusion It feels good to help Hearing their stories
Public Street Furniture Existing Street Furniture Interactions and Design
Design Proposal Design Brief Street Furniture examples
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Project Timeline
Exploration Hand-in 10_01_17
Street Furniture Analysis Concept Ideation Concept Development Validation
Users and Stakeholders Form Iterations Modelling Ergonomics
January Brief
February Interim
16_01_17
08_02_17
This was the proposed project timeline I designed at the beginning of my final major project, with a week cushion at the end of May, in case anything goes wrong.
Material Exploration Collaborative Research Environment Research Scale models
Full Size Prototype Photos and Videos Editing Communication
March
April
CJ Hand-in 09_03_17
Easter Break 14_04_17
Final Hand-in
12_05_17
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17_01_17
Gain a better understanding of existing street furniture and how people interact with the furniture in order to better my design and understand how my furniture could be different to current designs
02 Existing Street Furniture Inspiration Critical Analysis Bench Types Summary
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Inspiration To begin to understand the fundamentals of designing street furniture, I began by collecting images of furniture and related objects in order to analyse the function,aesthetics and interactions of these objects, hopefully gaining inspiration and insights for my design.
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Physical When analysing the physical form of these pieces of furniture I grouped them in relevant groups such as modular and evaluated what I liked and disliked about the physical attributes of the furniture.
Interactions One key factor of my design I would like to incorporate is a level of interaction with the product that entices the user to interact with the furniture.
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Bench and seating types To properly evaluate the different styles of benches I produced line drawings of the various types. I much prefer the designs that aren’t just a simple plain bench as they don’t encourage interaction.
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Summary Gain a better understanding of existing street furniture and how people interact with the furniture in order to better my design and understand how my furniture could be different to current designs. I like the aesthetics and properties of modular benches, for the ease of manufacture and allowing for different forms. The design of the furniture should encourage the users to interact with the object, this can be done well with choice of materials. I want my furniture to not look like a typical bench I want the form to interest people into either avoiding it or interacting with it.
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20_01_17
Start the ideation process, starting with extreme concepts that are critical of homelessness and then grounding them, and utilising my tutor and peer groups opinions.
03 Concept Ideation Sketches collection Concepts and suggestions Relevant insights Summary
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Tutor and peer session
25_02_17
During my ideation I explored concepts utilising the insights I found during my exploration project. I put together my top six concepts to present to my tutor group. After presenting my concepts within our tutor group, we ended up all coming up with concepts for each others projects and talking about the key drivers behind the concepts.
Tutor and Peer Concepts
I need define exactly what are the key insights driving my concepts. Could try incorporate a secondary function that homeless people can use. I don’t want to design something for homeless people that means they can live more comfortably on the streets as I believe it in turn legitimatises homelessness.
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Cardboard Seating With this concept I wanted to exploit the association of homelessness with cardboard. Many people think of cardboard simply as a packaging material however when utilised in the right way cardboard as a material can offer many good properties, however if left outside out of a home it will deteriorate, similar to the homeless.
Empathy Chair The most empathetical I felt during my exploration was talking to people that have experienced homelessness, especially when talking about their life stories. Their stories are often never heard by the public therefore by providing a platform where their stories can be heard it could help improve the way the public interact with the homeless.
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Heat Sharer One key insight from the street presence section of my exploration project was the fact that people find it hard to empathise with the homeless as they can’t relate to their situation however everyone can relate to temperature, providing someone with warmth would be very rewarding for the giver possibly emulating such an action as a hug.
PHDT Bench The use of pervasive homeless deterrence technology is an aspect of our society that I personally think is the most inconsiderate way of dealing with such a complex social problem, creating the illusion of minimising the problem. It is also a technology that goes very unnoticed in public space and relates to many other forms of public control, therefore I believe this concept could very critical of our urban architecture.
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Summary My two favourite critical design concepts that I will be taking forward are the empathy chair, because the metaphor of actually being inside a homeless persons head could be very influential in getting people to relate to their situations. I will also develop the PHDT bench because I believe the use of these technologies are the most inconsiderate way of dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in our society, and our space could be so different. Laura: I need to fully define what the key insights to the concepts are and what I want to furniture to achieve.
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03_02_17
Explore and develop my two favourite concepts from my ideation phase so that I can present two concepts at my interim.
04 Concept Exploration Urban spikes Empathy chair Interim Bringing the home outside
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We are treating People like Pigeons
4.1 Urban Spikes Developing a concept that is critical of pervasive homeless deterrence technology, especially looking into the homeless spikes and translating the meaning behind the use of this technology and showing how it could be.
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Hostile Architecture Within my exploration project I came across various technologies that are in our urban environments that control our public space preventing certain activities from taking place, this was a collection of them.
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Aggressive Forms The anti-homeless spike is by far one of the most intrusive technologies used to deter homeless people from laying down in certain areas. I put together a mood board of forms that utilise the form of a spike for different purposes as well as the use of mass volume.
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Jeff Koons Within this exhibition Jeff Koons explored the form of inflatables then produced them out of metal, playing with the form and textures of the metal. I found this work very inspiring as the form of it makes the viewer really want to touch and interact with the product.
Gufram Gufram designed a range of products that have an apparent hard intimidating form but produced them out of poly urethane foam, giving it a playful almost childlike theme. Once again encouraging interaction between the user and product through choice of materials.
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The Homeless Spike Utilising the aggressive anti-homeless spikes in the form of a spiked bench would deter most people from interacting with it, in the same way people avoid interacting with homeless people due to their unknown situation. I began by producing a variety of spikes as physical references to use throughout the project, I then continued to design how I could produce modules of spikes to use on the bench.
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When attempting to glue the foam together using two part resin (which didn’t work) I was left with a firm base on the foam, and I found you could get a better cut with a firm base, therefore I applied a thin layer resin on the bottom of the modules before cutting, you can see the difference in cuts on the right.
Fear of the unknown The appearance of concrete reflects the harsh unforgiving urban environments that the homeless live in and the contrast of memory foam highlights how we could change these public spaces to remember the people that need help in our society.
When talking to Karolyn Miranda a Northumbria Fashion student about the possibility of sewing around the spikes, in order to waterproof the foam for outdoor use she said it will be very hard.
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I saw a technique of scoring wood in a way that allowed the wood to flex slightly for extra comfort. The first time I tried doing this the scores were too narrow and close together, the wood snapped when flexed, so I moved the scores further apart and then it could flex it without snapping.
Hidden Abilities I explored the possibilities of having the spikes lying flat to start with and appear more like the homeless spikes that I am being critical of. Until the user interacts with the bench and it lifts up and forms a sofa like bench encapsulating the user in soft foam, creating a slight sense of privacy.
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06_02_17
4.2 Empathy Chair A concept that encourages the public to hear life stories of people experiencing homelessness. Their stories are often never heard, but from my personal experiences create a lot of empathy towards their situations.
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Human Forms After finding the previous image defining empathy, I decided to look at seating with a sense of personification and elements of the human form.
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Antony Gormley One of the most inspirational artists when it comes to human form is Antony Gormley as he has explored many variations of the human form, and with each piece of art he summarises and highlights various human interactions and forms.
Droog The rag chair by Droog forms a chair out of compressing rags and materials into a form. The choice of material really resonates with my project showing how possible waste streams of society can serve a purpose and can function and benefit our society.
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Geometric Face Whilst exploring the form of a Human face I wanted to create a gender neutral geometric face, because I like the way the sun and shadows interact with the harsh edges. I began by trying to cut away sections of a polystyrene head, however it was hard to get even cuts from both sides and the nose prevented me from getting the desired cuts. I then saw some DIY Halloween geometric masks on pinterest and began exploring forms through different cardboard and different style nets.
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Experimentation of forms of the face with a base.
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Head Angle When holding one of the masks I noticed that the angle of the head changed the emotional perceptions and purpose of the chair and thought I could exploit this insight possibly as a form of interaction between user and furniture.
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Hearing their Stories
From my exploration project one of my insights was that the use of someone’s personal handwriting provides personality and gives character. The telling of a homeless persons life story reaffirms their humanity and gives the listener/reader an understanding as to the challenges they faced that lead them to becoming homeless. The idea of the furniture having a life story is nice but this concept is too literal, I would like to develop a way that the stories could be added to over time.
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Interim Neil: Is the challenge is about the purpose of the architectural space (what it is used for) or our perceptions of homelessness? Could this be about encouraging people to meet and talk not just homeless and be about positive social behaviour? Antony: The form of the head is very over complicated and I would end up spending too much time on the physical side of it, I believe your other elements such as the furniture telling a story and being able to add to the story is more important.
08-02-17
Potentially too ‘Arty’ - is the connection to homelessness clear enough?
Summary Increase the connection between the furniture and homelessness. Focus more on the meaning behind the concept instead of the physical design of the object. Simplify the form of the design so it will be easier to produce.
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09_02_17
To increase the connection between the street furniture and homelessness by analysing the differences between a sofa at home and a public bench.
4.3 Bringing the home outside Inspiration Differences Sitting Positions Concept Mock-ups Exterior Living Room
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Problem Solving Booth The problem solving booth was initiated to instigate positive social interactions and to get people talking about their problems, sometimes talking to a complete stranger would allow certain minorities to either receive help or help others which is proven to help mental well-being.
The Blue Room The blue room was a social experiment done in Rotterdam where they built a living room in the city to see how people interacted with the space and with each other.
Sounding Off An interactive sound-walk with the map relating to the locations of eight QR codes linking to a wide range of sound, image and text resources, each location of the map is identified as having material and symbolic significance to homeless people, promoting a more nuanced public understanding and discussion of visible street homelessness.
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Differences A comparative analysis of seating at home and in public space.
To analyse the differences between seating in a home environment and sitting on a bench in public space. Comfort is a key difference, such as the comfort of a cushion or soft sofa in comparison to a hard wooden bench Control is also a key difference, for example at home you can control when its light and where the light is focussed as opposed to in the street where the sun and the street lamps are out of your control. Privacy and security are large differences however it is very hard to achieve these within public space.
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Sitting positions at home Do a comparative analysis of seating positions of people at home and those in public space. People often have their legs on the furniture. Users often utilise the corners of the furniture for extra comfort. The users also have very open body language insinuating the they are very comfortable with their surroundings.
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Sitting positions in public Users are often by themselves therefore don’t interact with others. They have more closed body language sometimes facing opposite to other people. Users also often put their bags around their feet for security purposes. Everyone is in a very upright positions as the furniture doesn’t allow people to achieve many other positions.
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Concept Mockups I modelled up so concepts of furniture that incorporates a sense of bringing the home outside to show them to my peers and tutors, to get their opinions on the concepts. This concept utilised the form of a lamp typically seen in a home and incorporated an interactive dial where the user could give a homeless person a gift such as a coffee, but I thought this was another concept in itself.
Face to face seating to encourage people to talk and interact with each other.
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Exterior living room This was the final concept, the main insights being, making people feel more familiar with their surroundings and situation increasing likelihood of empathy, and people are more likely to interact when they are more comfortable, like at home. Homeless stories would be played through speakers in the bench, yet these could be subject to vandalism. The use of a recognisable lamp strengthens the familiarity aspect of the concept and this is where the user interacts and plays the homeless stories. The amount of light correlates to the sadness or happiness of the story.
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Summary Howard: Need to understand the stake holders more (local councils, land-owner, cleaners, police and users) Find a collaborators and validators in street furniture such as Glasdon or Harry Vos. Thinks that I’m trying too hard to solve homelessness and its not going to be solved with furniture, possibly change it to having positive social interactions, with less extreme archetypes more like people on their lunch break.
20_02_17
Laura: I need to take control of my project and decide what I’m going to do.
Change of direction Designing a product that accommodates for homeless people it in-turn legitimises homelessness. People that would stop to interact with this experience would most likely be aware of homelessness and already empathetic. People that do ignore the homeless and have poor interactions with them wouldn’t necessarily stop. By focussing on homeless people am I limiting the amount of people that would interact with the furniture.
Therefore I plan on designing street furniture that creates more positive social interactions for members of the public and aspects of society, doing this will result in the design being less critical and move towards being design for production.
Phillips
Dunne & Raby
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21_02_17
Can street furniture create more positive social interactions within our public space?
Analyse how the change of direction will now incorporate a wider demographic of users and stakeholders.
05 Positive, Social Furniture Users Activities Stake holders Collaborators Positive interaction
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Users To fully understand the variety of users and group sizes in the public space that might use this furniture I spent time observing people on Northumberland Street and Old Eldon Square and created these personas.
Vanessa
George
Colin
Student getting some food in town on her lunch break.
Young Homeless person who hasn’t eaten or slept.
Lonely old person who hasn’t spoken for a while.
Wants a break from work, somewhere outside she can eat her lunch on her own and think about her work.
Single person looking for comfort and a break from reality.
Single person observing people and street activities, having a break from walking.
Tina & Sarah
Chris & Paul
Jessica & Friends
Mother and young child out for the day shopping.
Two work colleagues eating their lunch outside.
In town with her friends socialising in town.
Requires a safe area where a child can play and she can keep an eye on her child.
Wanting a break from the realities of work where they can eat and socialise with each other.
Would like an area where her and her friends can sit and socialise together outside.
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Activities Whilst on Northumberland street I also noted what activities were taking place within the public space and as well which activities were most relevant to the different users.
Eating
Talking
Playing
Many people were sat down on the benches in town to eating, mainly items bought from a nearby shop.
People in groups are often talking within their groups. People on their own are often looking at their phone or people watching.
From children running around, old people playing dominoes and buskers
Could you encourage people to eat outside using the furniture?
How could you instigate conversations between strangers?
Look at other cultures like New York where they play chess on benches.
Reading
On the Phone
Working
A lot of people were reading in Old Eldon square where it’s a lot quiter than the high street.
Many younger generations sat on a bench or walking with their head looking down at their phone.
How and where do people enjoy reading?
Possibly utilise this by having graphics on the floor through shadows.
A few people writing in notepads or on a laptop at Old Eldon Square however it looked uncomfortable as he was resting it on his legs with no desk. Possibly build it and they will come?
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Improving social interactions What methods could be implemented within the design of the furniture to improve and possibly instigate social interactions between member of the public.
Playfulness
Face to face
Increase comfort
Playful interactions can offer useful tools to socialise with
Public seating is often facing outwards and you sit parallel to the other users of the bench.
This can influence users to feel more at home and more comfortable to interactions.
Unique spaces
Hidden messages
Commonalities
Entice people to interact with the furniture with multiple options of sitting positions, meeting the users needs.
Showing someone something they didn’t know, can increase trust and make people more
Sharing common ground with someone can help instigate conversations, such as eating the same food.
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Stakeholders When looking at the stakeholders of the furniture I need to understand all the different aspects and parties that are involved with the design and questions that I need to answer.
Users
Authorities
Why would people choose to sit on this furniture instead of other seating?
Who are the main parties that are responsible for allowing the furniture to be built?
Who would use this seating? Could you encourage people to eat using the furniture?
What are the regulations and laws that the furniture will have to adhere to? What affect does the furniture have in reference to the police?
Landowner
Maintenance
What are the reasons for choosing this furniture instead of other furniture?
Who cleans the furniture?
What does it offer to the environment? Could the furniture increase business for the surrounding area?
What happens to it at night? Who is responsible for repairing the furniture if it gets broken?
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Collaborators & Validators
Owls - Nina Browne I have been in contact with Owls who are the organisation that is responsible for the problem solving booths in London and have been advising me with my concept, especially around the psychology and sociology behind my concepts.
Policy lab - Andy Kempster I met Andy Kempster at the learning for life RSA workshop where he mentioned about the work they have been doing around homelessness and although the project has moved away from homelessness he has invited me to their next workshop where they will be prototyping concepts with Local Authorities.
Newcastle Council - Sarah Miller In order to fully understand the stakeholders, funding and the limitations of street furniture I have been emailing Sarah who is responsible for the urban design and public art within Newcastle City Council.
Glasdon - Stephen Fletcher I was advised by Howard to contact Glasdon, as they are one of the largest manufacturers of street furniture and I have been talking to Stephen about my project and any further questions I have about the manufacturing methods used to produce my furniture he is happy to answer and help with.
Heatherwick - Harry Vos I have been talking to Harry Vos and ex Northumbria Student about my project and asking him about the work he did whilst on placement at Thomas Heatherwick on the Garden bridge where he was looking at CCTV cameras and how to alter the form of them to be less intrusive.
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Summary After the change of direction there are a lot more opportunities to study a target market and pin point the users of this furniture. Incorporating face to face seating can influence users into talking. Being able to design a unique space gives personality and options of seating to meet the users needs. I can now start utilising my collaborators and validators to achieve a well rounded design for all stakeholders. Howard: I should study why people seat where they do and the differences between single people and groups.
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27_02_17
Explore concepts of furniture that have positive social benefits to the users and the space
06 Concept Iteration Street Furniture Hidden messages/ perceptions Unique spaces Face to face seating The frame Ergonomics Full size prototype
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Changing Perceptions This selection of geometric furniture allows many different forms and silhouettes, I chose to have the slight appearance of a body laying on the street. As you walk past the furniture your perception of the furniture and the message of the furniture changes.
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Unique Spaces Allowing the users to adapt and modify the furniture that is around them offers them a variety of seating options giving them a sense of ownership and encourage unique installations to entice users to sit down and hopefully have a positive social interaction. People moving them and stealing see (see public space laws.) Could possibly be too heavy too move depending on the friction resistance.
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Face to face seating Encouraging face to face seating can encourage talking when people are facing each other, we see this when people talk to each other they naturally turn and open their body up to the person they are talking to.
Too much material, tables couldn’t be used as a desk because the knees can’t go under.
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The Frame I wanted to create a similar framework as the previous face to face seating options using less material and allowing room for people to use the higher platform as a table or desk to accommodate for working, eating and socialising. The use of one continuous metal frame provides a commonality between users.
By using modules such as the ones shown above it would allow for simple and quick installations as well as offering a wide range of options and seating plans making each installation unique.
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Ergonomics In order the look at the ergonomics of the design I measured a square area that could comfortably fit a user within it, I then made a scale model of the square framework from cardboard.
When scaling the frame up I realised that the ergonomics wouldn’t allow the square frame work to act as armrests, so i had to include extra lengths.
50mm
70mm 50mm
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Full Size Model Using some old metal pipes, connectors and cardboard panels build a quick scale model to look at how I could alter the frame work in order to provide armrests but keep the one constant metal framework. I don’t like the resulting aesthetic of just adding the back rests. I prefered having alternating lengths of bar keeping the constant frame aesthetic. The frame isn’t very stable but this would be resolved by having solid metal bars.
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Summary Having a framework of seating options that can be adjusted to fit the users needs offers a good variety of seating. The frame might not be strong enough to hold people near the 95th percentile. Howard: It doesn’t look a very comfortable seat, this could prevent people from sitting and interacting. Nice furniture will often be subject to vandlism in public space. The harsh geomtery of the framework doesn’t entice users in.
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06_02_17
07 Reflection Refined Brief Specifications Altered Project Timeline Next Steps
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Refined Brief Designing a piece of street furniture that encourages positive social interactions, whilst inducing a stronger sense of community in the space.
Specifications Incorporate face to face seating Modular framework Unique installations Hidden messages
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Altered Project Timeline
Exploration Hand-in 10_01_17
Street Furniture Analysis Concept Ideation Concept Development Validation
Users and Stakeholders Collaborative Research Modelling Ergonomics Scale models
January Brief
February Interim
16_01_17
08_02_17
Because I spent a lot more time on my concept ideation and development phase I fell behind and then due to the fact I have had a change of direction I still have more work to do on the form iterations of my design, but I have already began doing my collaborative research to understand designing street furniture better, therefore swapped them around. As well as including the engineering of my design, installation process
Material Exploration Form Iterations Engineering of Design Full Size Prototype Environment Research
Installation Photos and Videos Editing Communication
March
April
CJ Hand-in 09_03_17
Easter Break 14_04_17
Final Hand-in
12_05_17
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The Next Steps Material Exploration
Form Iterations
Types of metal for frame Back and arm rests Vandal resistance Finishes and paints
Seat panels Frame Connectors Fixings Hidden Messages
09_03_17 CJ Hand-in
13_03_17 Interim Review
Environment Research
Installation
Analyse possible spaces for installation Scale models of various installations Examples of installations relevant to space
Organise team to help Install in two different spaces Encourage people to interact Show hidden messages.
03_04_17
10_04_17 Easter Break
Engineering
Full Size Prototype
How the frame will fit together How the seats and back rests fit Production of parts Cost of manufacture
Frame Modules (external) Seat Panels Connectors Fixings Finishing and painting
20_03_17
27_03_17
Photos and Video
Communication
Photos of furniture in studio Photos of furniture in space Video of installation process Video of user reactions Videos of furniture in use
Editing videos Layout boards User feedback
17_04_17
24_04_17 Finish (plus week cushion)
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16_01_17 09_03_17