VENICE DUNDEE What could Dundee learn from Venice in it’s efforts to become a smarter city?
BLAIR BOYLE
THANK YOU
Thank you to the British Council and The University of Dundee for supporting me and enabling me to work and research in Venice. The amazing opportunity was a once in a lifetime experience and is one that will continue to inform my design and research practices. Learning about ISLAND and FREESPACE was a journey, one which I’m still on and one which continues to challenge me. The themes I explored as part of this research continue to be present in my research today - ISLAND has helped me to draw parallels I would have otherwise not considered and FREESPACE has helped me to appreciate space beyond just structure, something I want to help others understand. Thank You.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART 1 | THE VENICE PROBLEM PART 2 | THE VENICE SOLUTION PART 3 | FREESPACE & ISLAND PART 4| TRANSLATING TO DUNDEE CONCLUSION APPENDICES
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BRAZILIAN PAVILION The 2018 Brazilian Pavilion ‘MUROS DE AR’ or ‘WALLS OF AIR’ explores the idea of the immaterial barriers in borders and disciplines. A multidisciplinary team responded to ten themes gathering, using and applying data. Ten approaches, ten Scales, ten ways of understanding architecture in relation to other fields and ten cartographic outcomes present complex social issues in a new way. 7
INTRODUCTION
FRENCH PAVILION The 2018 French Pavilion ‘INFINITE PLACES’ presents the idea of adaptive reuse in a new context/ concept of the built environment. Presenting place in space as a process of change rather than an end result. Spaces should change over time being seen as ‘perpetually unfinished’ rather than being fixed monuments with an accomplishment in being finished.
INFINITE PLACES: 2018 FRENCH PAVILION | ADAPTIVE SPACES
EUROTOPIE: 2018 BELGIAN PAVILION | DEMOCRATIC SPACES
INTRODUCTION Amid the digital age, we find ourselves in, Smart City is a term being placed on almost every competent city lately. The biggest problem with this is that there is no definitive explanation of what a smart city is or what it means to be smart. Often, human approaches to smart city solutions are forgotten for shinier sexier technological advancements that minimally benefit city stakeholders and only really act as an ego boost to the city. But in a historical city established over 1500 years ago (Avventure Bellissime, 2018) that relies on conservation and heritage, how can it be considered a smart city? The answer is as simple as the solution. Venice makes use of technology over relying on it. Venice takes the common practice of a smart city and flips it on its head approaching it bottom-up opposed to top-down.
“A smart city can be instead an instrument to increase democratic participation of people in city government and therefore to create higher consensus and a better quality of life in a social sense.” (Urbego, 2015)
“Smart cities will be smart because their citizens have found new ways to recognise, interlink and use in a meaningful way their own and each other’s assets, data and other resources.” (Urbego, 2015) Urbego (the lead of smart cities projects in Venice) conducted a workshop focusing on the mobility challenges in the city and later produced a report (referenced to throughout this report). What Urbego championed was inclusion and involvement throughout their project delivery as well as the inclusion of technology not as a solution but as a means of gathering the data to find the right solution. They didn’t go in expecting to adjust everything using innovative technology because in Venice this would be very difficult due to the infrastructure and historical value, instead, they approached with an open mind and a willingness to use technology and people as a resource to improvement.
BELGIAN PAVILION The 2018 Belgian Pavilion ‘EUROTOPIE’ is an exploration of the democratic contribution of Belgium to the EU - presenting many of the challenges and issues of democracy. It’s a statement of access or lack that there of to democratic spaces where people have the opportunity to be heard, to be listened to. The concentric circles symbolic of the EU Parliament can also represent a growing distance from the centre - an epicentre, a fading ripple, a distance from democracy. 11
PART 1 | THE VENICE PROBLEM
ARGENTINIAN PAVILION The 2018 Argentinian Pavilion ‘HORIZONTAL VERTIGO’ explores the intersect of place, geography & architecture in relation to humanity and the spirit of democracy. Projects were curated since Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983 to demonstrate the links between architecture, democracy and Freespace.
VÉRTIGO HORIZONTAL: 2018 ARGENTINIAN PAVILION | DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT
VOI VEDETE UN’ARCH CITY NOI UNA SMART CITY.
LAGOON SIDE BILLBOARD | TRANSLATION: YOU SEE A CITY OF ARCHITECTURE, WE SEE A SMART CITY
PART 1 | THE VENICE PROBLEM Despite Rome being Italy’s most populated and largest city (2.8 million residents (World Population Review, 2017) and occupying a geographical area of 1,285 km² (Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2018)) the Comune Di Venezia at 414.6 km² (Wikipedia, 2018) or roughly 1/3 of the size of Rome attracts more than twice as many tourists at a significant 30 million per year ((Mourby, 2017) (Rome at 14million (Fes, 2018)). More distinctly those tourist numbers are only for the main cluster of islands (sestieri) which only account for 10 km² (Freemaptools.com, 2007) of the Comune Di Venezia. This concentrated tourism is one of the city’s biggest problems as it roughly translates as 80,000 visitors a day to the 55,000 permanent residents (Giuffrida, 2017) or 545 tourists to every 1 resident annually. However, recently there has been turmoil over how to handle this problem with various solutions being proposed from ticketed entry, daily caps on admission (Dickinson, 2018) or even a ban on cruise ships docking (Mourby, 2017). These ‘solutions’ all come with significant drawbacks, notably, they limit who can and will visit Venice essentially making it only for the elite and rich. Residents have been quoted saying they want to avoid the complete ‘Disneyfication’ of Venice (making it solely a tourist attraction (Ross, 2015)) but would avoiding this by making it only for the rich really be the solution residents are looking for? Realistically, any solution that limits people from visiting creates segregation all too close to the history of isolation held in some of the islands. The problem is not the number of tourists, it is the focus and funnelling of them at singular points (Urbego, 2015). People see Venice as such a small
area to cover with little actual attractions other than the architecture and views, this creates a surplus of Daytripper’s who feel they can see everything the city has to offer in a matter of hours, consuming the culture as quickly as possible and then leaving. This quick pacing and limited care for the city creates a tension between the tourists and the city residents and even a divide in residents themselves, some living despite tourists and others living through tourists (Urbego, 2015).
THE PROBLEM Urbego delivered a workshop looking at all the problems above and more exploring them through involvement and opinions of stakeholders, tourists, residents, students and international influencers (taking a service design approach). The problems were defined succinctly as:
“...the congestion of the arrival area together with the main pedestrian routes and the lack of information or signage to support pedestrian movement.” (Urbego, 2015) Venice has 2 main entry points the Piazzale Roma for cars and buses and the Santa Lucia train station, both located within 100m of one another and leading people in the same general direction. Though multiple routes exist people tend to take the route most prominent and most travelled by others i.e. following the crowd. Rather than choosing the easy and obvious option to limit people entering the city, the workshop participants felt there are multiple other solutions that would be far greater. (Urbego, 2015) 15
PART 2 | THE VENICE SOLUTION
PAKISTAN PAVILION The 2018 Pakistan Pavilion ‘THE FOLD’ explores social and physical dimensions reflecting Karachi Pakistan’s largest and most populated city. Elements such as swings and benches are designed to represent the limitations and interdependency on one another.
THE FOLD: 2018 PAKISTAN PAVILION | INTERDEPENDENCE
VIEW OF SAN SERVOLO FROM THE BRITISH PAVILION PIAZZA
PART 2 | THE VENICE SOLUTION Urbego used technology as a means to find solutions over it being the end result. As well as this, they looked to apply a holistic approach to tackling the problems at hand over individually tackling problems and compartmentalising issues. The holistic approach creates consistency in city identity and how people perceive it – previously a confusing aspect for those arriving and navigating. There are 5 distinctive projects: Arrival Point Strategy; Redistribution of Flows; Unified Visual Identity; Wayfinding System; and App for Tourists, though they all link into one another and build on the success of one another. For example, take the first two points: the former proposes a rearrangement of the arrival area into Venice which would directly influence the flow of people, while the latter redistributes flows after arrival, throughout the city and upon leaving, influencing how people re-interact with the arrival area on departure.
ARRIVAL POINT STRATEGY First impressions are important particularly for a city that thrives on tourism – so it would be surprising to know that a large number of people arriving in Venice feel like they’d been abandoned at a car park (Urbego, 2015). But that’s exactly what it feels like when you enter the Piazzale Roma for the first time. It’s a barren
plot of land as far placed from being Venetian as the concrete construction that welcomes you there, not great for first impressions. People go for the biggest thing they see the Constitution bridge which leads directly to the Santa Lucia train station. People arriving at the Santa Lucia station can either get on the vaporetto, walk left along the Grand Canal or go right crossing the Constitution bridge. Most take the obvious choice of the bridge causing major congestion, directional confusion and intersecting flows.
ARRIVAL POINT STRATEGY (URBEGO 2015)
Urbego proposes a strategy to avoid some of this confusion by redesigning the layout and imposing a kind of one-way system. Alongside the layout alterations an ‘eye-catcher gate’ would be designed to tempt tourists in who are walking, creating a separate flow of people in a different direction of the bridge. The one-way system makes it easier to enter and exit at will avoiding the feeling of ‘swimming upstream’. A tourist info point would also be positioned within eyesight of both the Piazzale Roma and Santa Lucia station encouraging tourists to use this as their first point of contact with the
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city. Through this Urbego hopes to, ‘absorb and direct the pedestrian flows as well as facilitate the interchange between the different modes of transport.’ (Urbego, 2015)
REDISTRIBUTION OF FLOWS Tourists and locals can sometimes be at each other’s throats due to their intolerance for one another- this creates tension and an uncomfortable experience for everyone involved. What Urbego proposes to resolve this is a filtration method that reduces the focussed numbers of tourists and spreads them around the city allowing them to see as much of the city as possible. As a tourist navigating Venice can be hard: signs to the same place pointing in opposite directions; multiple vaporetto stops with the same name (S. Marco s. Zaccaria, S. Marco Vallaresso, S. Marco Giardinetti (Venice.nu, 2018)); and the general appearance can leave you awestruck. Urbego proposed a new vaporetto red line specifically for tourists that only stops at or near to the main attractions of Venice, this could be boarded from the new entry point or at any one of the stops. Walking routes would also be encouraged and promoted via the newly produced app, a spritz (Aperol Spritz), barbarian (basic), cinema and Corto Maltese route were all envisioned tailored to different types of tourists. Variations of the barbarian route exist to spread the tourists across multiple streets opposed to focusing on one.
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NEW WALKING ROUTES (URBEGO 2015)
UNIFIED VISUAL IDENTITY | WAYFINDING To support the above routes and those who wish to go off the beaten bath Urbego created a unique visual identity that they integrated into a new wayfinding system. Wayfinding totems would be strategically placed at intervention points showcasing a local map, walking distance and times to significant landmarks and neighbourhoods (Sestieri), as well as vaporetto stops and relevant lines. The totems design is inspired by gondola materials and colours (glossy black and accented by silver) also show a record of where the highest acqua alta (high tide) had been recorded at each of its different totems positions. These touches give a unique identity unique to Venice and link to the unified visual identity connecting each of them. Regardless of having a map or not, it is still possible for people to get lost. To help tourists get back on the right track, and to provide the physical notion of a track/route Urbego proposed smaller scale interventions similar to the totems but far more simplistic. The occasional
floor tile would be replaced by a specific mosaic tile pattern inspired by the interior tiling of the historic buildings. These would act as checkpoints on your route or as branches to help you find your way back to a route when you lose your way.
WAYFINDING FLOOR TILES URBEGO (2015)
APP FOR TOURISTS An app would aim to support all the above solutions and integrate more content and information to amplify the current tourist experience of Venice. Each of the proposed routes or lines would be shown in full on the app from start point to finish as well as an estimate how long each would take. The barbaric line (main casual tourist line) would be responsive to numbers and adapt accordingly. The information would be integrated about each of the routes and key points and would have pop-ups to inform the user about history, facts, proximity to facilities, walking time etc. A game or treasure hunt is also proposed for children to also engage with. VIEW OF VENICE FROM LIDO
PART 3 | FREESPACE & ISLAND
SPANISH PAVILION The 2018 Spanish Pavilion ‘BECOMING’ explores the future of architecture through engaging people in learning environments in their journey to become the architects of tomorrow. Particular emphasis is placed on the new multidisciplinary role of architects - ‘tattooing’ concepts and proposals to the interior walls.
BECOMING: 2018 SPANISH PAVILION | PROCESS
BRITISH PAVILION
THE PUBLIC ON THE PIAZZA AT THE BRITISH PAVILION
The 2018 British Pavilion ‘ISLAND’ explores themes of abandonment, identity (loss of) and exile in relation to the current political climate. ISLAND aptly named represents either a place of exile and isolation a barren landscape or a place of paradise an oasis if you will. The piazza creates an entirely new and unique public space for people to experience while the pavilion below allows for a varied programme of events to take place from poetry to films throughout the biennale.
PART 3 | FREESPACE & ISLAND FREESPACE
ISLAND
FREESPACE the overall theme of the 16th International Architecture Biennale also has a relevance to our cities and how we can influence them to be smarter. In many ways a city is the exact opposite of a Freespace with it being man-made and under complete control but, interestingly, they can also be the exact definition of Freespace in the way people interact with them. Venice could be considered one complete Freespace, the way it interacts with the water, sometimes consumed – the weather, the natural lighting the connectivity between islands, the flows of people. Freespace fundamentally contributes to cities being smart as Freespace gives people a place to breathe, to enjoy, to live. In today’s world, this is crucial to have these ‘break out’ spaces where people just exist without the stresses of modern life.
ISLAND offered some great analogous inspiration on how people interact with cities and environments, there wasn’t a single day that was the same nor were there two people who had the same reaction to the pavilion. Some people were shocked, angry, confused, lost, intrigued, bothered and every other possible reaction. The pavilion and the accompanying piazza provokes a reaction, not always a good one, but an honest reaction – this in addition to conversations with visitors helped to reveal the vastly different ways people have a right to feel about things. Now, translating this to a city environment where people are generally the ones who fund any new initiatives (through taxes) you can see how any reaction is just as valid. If ISLAND were a city – would it be so different from any other? It meets peoples needs, provides them with options, can be interacted with and changes with time. And yet people will still have a reaction positive or negative as to how it does these things. People will interact with it in fundamentally different ways and will feel completely different about it – much like any city of today. This is interesting to consider; how could a smart city get better reactions from people? Would they respond to a better ‘how’ if they were involved in a democratic process of involvement and participation, much like what Venice has demonstrated in its Smart City Projects.
The Biennale contributes to Venice being a smart city. It brings international contributions and opinions to the city, what would Venice be without the Biennale in a modern context? Would it ace the same problems? Would it have considered the same solutions? The Biennale is a monumental-scale project that draws in tourists and locals alike for more than half the year, every year. This creates a rich cultural economy where people from many different nationalities already come to contribute their work and experience the Biennale – so they get to experience the historical city environment as a part of that, this is smart.
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PART 4 | TRANSLATING TO DUNDEE
SCOTTISH PAVILION The 2018 Scottish Pavilion ‘HAPPENSTANCE’ presents an ever shifting environment that locals and visitors alike can contribute to taking a stance on what is happening. It explores how one can intervene in ones own life and how anyone can contribute to change. The Happenstance is ever changing and continuously involving more participants, builders, changers and viewers.
HAPPENSTANCE: 2018 SCOTTISH PAVILION | CONSTANT CHANGE
DETAIL VIEW OF VTN ARCHITECTS BAMBOO STALACTITE
PART 4 | TRANSLATING TO DUNDEE While Dundee doesn’t have as many tourists as Venice, a little under 850,000 (Evening Telegraph, 2017), or face the exact problems that Venice do, there is still plenty that can be learned from the projects Venice developed and the way in which they developed them.
“Urbego believes that there is no one solution for all cities and local knowledge and international perspective as well as a trial and error approach on public space design, information and movement is crucial and represents a cost efficient and participatory method that it plans to apply in other historic city centres.” (Urbego, 2015) From an outside perspective on the projects it seems there were three aspects Urbego really pushed and that were a unanimous success: using technology as a path to a solution, not as ‘the’ solution; co-designing and involving as many voices as possible through the prototyping process; holistically approaching problems to create integrated solutions; Using tracking systems at Santa Lucia and Piazzale Roma they were able to track visitor numbers and congestion at key areas, and by simpler online means gather opinions and feedback. This inclusion of technology as a means to measure can 1) reduce cost as it is a one-time thing rather than a prolonged system with upkeep and updating costs 2) provide a simpler feedback solution and more streamlined way of gathering data. This is not to say technology will never be an answer, it just demonstrates it is valuable to be
involved sooner rather than later and is not the only solution. Co-design in the context of a city is the only sensible option. It gives user insight at the earliest possible stages and helps to define the real problems at hand from multiple perspectives. “Involving strategic city partners in a clear and rational process with a positive, cross sectorial and user driven thinking can lead to the creation of a better urban environment.” (Urbego, 2015) This ability to be able to see a problem from multiple perspectives not only makes it possible to get rapid feedback on ideas but it makes it much easier to create holistic solutions. This is because there’s not a single mindset or approach to the challenge but a team approach creating branches of solutions. “From an Urbego perspective, the best way to understand the context was to test and record reactions and suggestions of pedestrians.” (Urbego, 2015) Prototyping is the best way to identify any problems with ideas before they go into production and even to see if an idea is either working or necessary. Holistic approaches provide integrated ideas that can build upon one another and provide a more streamlined experience not only for the users of that system but also for the stakeholders and providers. Instead of providing 5 ideas in compartmentalised fashion, you provide 1 with 5 interconnecting aspects, this can also keep costs down as well as create a successful and recognisable project identity and purpose.
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CONCLUSION
CENTRAL PAVILION | MULTIPLE ARCHITECTS WORK CURATED
DUTCH PAVILION As part of the 2018 Dutch Pavilion Programme ‘THE PORT AND CALL OF ICARUS’ was produced separate to the Dutch pavilion and Giardini. It explores FREESPACE through reflection, description and projection on the concept of a port. Seven rooms explore this idea though scale from the genetic up to the mega. The significance of seven in this location pays homage to the seven martyrs executed at this location by Nazi forces in1944. THE PORT AND FALL OF ICARUS | DUTCH PAVILION PROGRAM
CONCLUSION All things considered, Venice may be a historic city, but it has a smart future both in and out of tourism. Dundee has a lot it could learn from this city from how it approached the workshops and projects all the way through to the delivery and holistic approach. Venice approached its challenges with a strong sense of identity, history and heritage and wanted to use the tools of today to solve the problems they face but also to communicate the cities unique and prosperous identity. Dundee is in a place of regeneration and rejuvenation, while it may not have as much history as Venice, it still has a rich history and cultural identity particularly in design and craft, not so far of the Italian Renaissance. Dundee is in a position where it’s paving the way for its own future, where it’s recognising its abilities and inabilities. Making the most of its assets and exploring its weaknesses, and its weaknesses are where smart city development comes in to play. We have the chance to make use of cutting edge technology to create world-class innovation and solutions to problems faced worldwide (and in Dundee) such as poverty, homelessness, drug abuse and more. Smart city ideology can be used, very much inspired by Urbego’s interventions in Venice, to co-design and co-create solutions to the problems that face residents in Dundee. Dundee is at the start of its journey into becoming a smart city and the most exciting part about that is to imagine how it can serve everyone who lives, works and studies in the city and positively influence their lives. What it would be a shame to see is Dundee becoming a city that simply creates public-private contracts with leading technology companies (Urbego,
2015), creating interventions that are minimally impactful. A lot can be learned from Venice as well as Freespace and Island. It’s important to have people involved, to allow them to use any space as Freespace and to have an awareness of there reactions and how they can be positively influenced. Through considerations and inspirations from Freespace, Island and Venice a really exciting concept and redefinition of the term ‘smart’ begins to emerge. Smart cities would no longer be considered smart because of the technology they use but because of the spaces the allow their citizens to occupy. They would be smart through citizen participation and consideration of their ideas - They would be a new era of smart. The Freespace manifesto by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara gives multiple definitions to the term Freespace, but to put it simply, Freespace is a response to a question before anyone has had to ask it, the natural ability of space’s means to give. Freespace provides infinite opportunities in a city whose identity is discovery, so it is important to focus efforts where Freespace and Smart Cities intersect in the context of Dundee. Dundee currently has a plan related to its smart city development with key focus areas: mobility; waste management; open data; public safety. Exploring these in the context of Freespace could prove to be an interesting challenge, particularly if it’s approached from Urbego’s perspective on co-design and prototyping. So what questions could Freespace answer in Dundee?
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APPENDICES
DISCLAIMER REFERENCES DESIGN NOTES ABOUT & CONTACT
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ARSENALE MAIN HALL
CLOUD PERGOLA | 2018 CROATIAN PAVILION
DISCLAIMER
Though supported by the British Council and University of Dundee - The content of this report was chosen independently by Blair Boyle and the views expressed are his and his alone unless other wise stated with a reference or quotation. Blair is not employed or directly representative of the British Council or the University of Dundee. Though Urbego is the main source for this report Blair is also not affiliated with them, any content presented from the Urbego Venice Smart City Report is not presented as his own work and is simply the sharing of information from a source. This information is meant as a factual opinion to influence future practice and where stated is a shared opinion. All images unless otherwise stated are property of and belong to Blair Boyle. Contact for use.
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BECOMING | 2018 SPANISH PAVILION
REFERENCES Dickinson, G., 2018. The Telegraph. [Online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ destinations/europe/italy/veneto/venice/articles/ venice-entry-charge-for-tourists/ [Accessed 17 07 2018].
[Online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ news/venice-to-charge-tourists-ticket-enter-stmarks-square/ [Accessed 16 07 2018].
Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2018. Rome: Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/ Rome [Accessed 16 07 2018].
Ross, W., 2015. The Independent. [Online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/ news/world/europe/the-death-of-venice-corruptofficials-mass-tourism-and-soaring-propertyprices-have-stifled-life-in-10251434.html [Accessed 17 07 2018].
Evening Telegraph, 2017. Evening Telegraph. [Online] Available at: https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/ tourists-visiting-angus-dundee-figures-show/ [Accessed 16 07 2018]. Fes, N., 2018. Tourism Review. [Online] Available at: https://www.tourism-review.com/rometourism-reported-a-successful-year-news10460 [Accessed 17 07 2018].
Urbego, 2015. Venice Smart City Report, [Online] Venice: IFHP. Available at: http://www.ifhp.org/sites/default/ files/staff/general/Urbego-Venezia%20Smart%20 City%20Report.pdf [Accessed 17 07 2018]. Venice.nu, 2018. Venice.nu. [Online] Available at: http://www.venice.nu/maps/ vaporettostops-bigmap/ [Accessed 17 07 2018].
Free Map Tools, 2007. Area Calculator: Free Map Tools. [Online] Available at: https://www.freemaptools.com/areacalculator.htm [Accessed 16 07 2018].
Wikipedia, 2018. Venice [Online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice [Accessed 16 07 2018].
Giuffrida, A., 2017. The Guardian. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/ world/2017/jul/23/venice-tempers-boil-overtourist-high-season [Accessed 16 07 2018].
World Population Review, 2017. Rome: Rome Population [Online] Available at: http://worldpopulationreview.com/ world-cities/rome-population/ [Accessed 16 07 2018].
Mourby, A., 2017. CNN Travel. [Online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/ venice-too-many-tourists/index.html [Accessed 17 07 2018].
Urbego (2015). Figure 2: Arrival Point to Venice, Figure 3: Navigation System, Figure 4: Wayfinding Tiles :[images] Available at: http://www.ifhp.org/sites/default/ files/staff/general/Urbego-Venezia%20Smart%20 City%20Report.pdf [Accessed 17 07 2018].
Paris, N., 2017. Venice mulls ticketing system for St Mark’s Square to combat overcrowding: Telegraph.
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PRISON TO PRISON | 2018 URUGUAY PAVILION
DESIGN
Two colour schemes have been chosen - one to represent VENICE and one to represent DUNDEE. This process was inspired by the Dundee V&A’s Twitter series exploring the pantone colours in the surrounding area. These colours are as follows: VENICE COLOURS DUNDEE COLOURS
#EA8942
Campanile Orange
#EFEEE9
Cloud White
#F8E3AA
Building Cream
#1960AE
Sky Blue
#A45F94
Campanile Green
#1F356F
Tay Blue
#1C594A
Lagoon Green
#545267
Building Grey
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REPAIR | 2018 AUSTRALIAN PAVILION
ABOUT & CONTACT Blair Boyle is a final year student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland, studying Interior Environmental Design. Using the knowledge of space and environments he learned through his time at university he aims to apply this to his other interests of Smart Cities and Service Design. SMART CITIES Since 2015 he has been involved in Smart City thinking through workshop participation though not properly aware of it until 2016 through his participation in the Kuala Lumpur Cultural Intelligence exchange with Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. His university fully funded him to participate in the Common Purpose smart cities program in Malaysia for five days. Two years later he would be partially funded by his university to study at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai for 8 weeks over summer on their Science, Engineering and Culture Summer School. During this time, he would also independently explore the spatiality and human elements of smart cities over the technological within Shanghai and elsewhere.
He also spent 6 months studying Interior & Service Design at Thomas More in Mechelen, Belgium. There he worked first hand with users and stakeholders on service & interiors projects. Blair sees a natural connection between spatial design, service design and smart city development both tangible and intangible which he is excited to explore through his design practice and through independent research.
SERVICE DESIGN Blair was an organiser for the 2017/18/19 Dundee Service Jam one of over 100 jams worldwide who collaborate across a single weekend to create service design projects in response to a single theme. Co-design, ideation, community, service design and prototyping are all explored as key parts of a jam. In 2017 the Dundee service jam was the largest in the world.
e: hello@blairboyle.com w: www.blairboyle.com 43