A beautiful collaboration

A beautiful collaboration The story of Pollee & Simple P

Under the headline “PeeBetter”, culture design agency UiWE and designer Sara Nanna have collaborated with the City of Copenhagen and Roskilde Festival to address the challenge of peeing in public spaces. The cross-sector collaboration has resulted in the development of two remarkable solutions for pee-needs at festivals, street parties, and other big public events – for both men and women.

HUMAN SOLUTIONS FOR PUBLIC SPACES

The collaboration between the different actors has resulted in two clear design solutions that have been tested with great success: “Simple P” – a new street urinal for men, and “Pollee” – a new open-air female urinal. The designs offer incomparable hygiene and great alternatives to the claustrophobia-inducing plastic containers or hidden street corners that are usually the options.

Pollee for women Simple P for men

I just love going to festivals!

..And ...and this this!

But I hate this...

R

R

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

ILDEL K S A O STIV

FE

C

R

FE

IWE

We held a workshop about the pee problems with UiWE. That became the start of a collaboration with UiWE and the designers Sara Nanna & Nuala Collins. They did a lot of research and we chipped in with our experiences too.

CO

We were so excited about solving this tremendous problem for the girls - and we knew it would be hard. The first thing we did was talk to a lot of girls - and then started experimenting. Working with experienced Roskilde people helps!

ILDE SKTIVAL OS

FE

C

CO

C

IWE

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

CO

U U

IWE

ILDEL K S A O STIV

U

OF Y ITPEN

The first design phase together with a lot of users - and the Roskilde HFestival AGEN

R

R

R

FE

F O EN G Y A ITPENH

O

E W I

C C

CO

U

WE

C

At the festival, we put a great ILDEL K effort into getting people to N E G S TIVA HA O EN S P give feedback. We talked to a lot of people about pee, and we had an SMS service going as well as an online platform. It was all about learning more about what works for the users.

At the festival, we could test the prototypes and get feedback. We like having this open dialogue with our guests, and we appreciate working with UiWE + partners because they are good at involving our users.

ILDE SKTIVAL OS

FE

OF Y IT

ILDE SKTIVAL OS

FE

F O EN G Y A ITPENH

CO

WE

C

Testing the prototype at the festival in 2011

It’s great!

C

O Y A ITPENH

ILDEL K S A O STIV

O Y IT

CO

E W I

C

We were happy that the City of Copenhagen wanted to go with new ways to handle public PENHA peeing. Working closely with the skilled people at the Centre for Cleaning helped us a lot.

We got a lot of insights into how to design for the tough use you find in an urban context.

U

C

CO

U

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

E W I

FE

IWE

Copenhagen Distortion

R

U

at big street parties likes Distortion. The Peebetter team was a perfect match to explore this.

CO

R

E We to explore new ILDwanted K S TIVAL O Ssolutions to the pee problems

FE

C

IWE

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

CO

U

Extending the collaboration to Copenhagen in 2012

The new Pollee

R R

ILDE SKTIVAL OS

FE

ILDEL K S A O STIV

FE

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

CO

C

E W I

C

IWE

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

CO

U

The new Pollee is optimized for the urban context and takes the best feedback from the Roskilde prototype into consideration. It was great seeing girls using the new solutions without much hesitation.

2

3

R

FE

CO

ILDE SKTIVAL OS

FE

OF Y IT

R

At Distortion, we presented both a new version of Pollee with new walls + ESimple PILDEL K N G S A H IVA Ngoes T a urinal that directly O E S P into the sewer. Our people and UiWE’s designers worked closely together with the logistics and the set up of it.

C

E W I

F O GEN Y A H ITPEN

CO

U

U

1

E W I

C

Simple P - the street urinal

Simple P - the street urinal

It’s the future!

The media said some nice things!

Festivals!

Street parties!

Anniversaries!

Concerts!

Sports events!

Parades!

Throughout the project, the relationship between the designers, Roskilde Festival, and the City of Copenhagen has been characterized by trust and openness. This has enabled us to focus solely on problem solving and has made the innovation process much more efficient and value-generating than a more formalized client relation.

Designing in a close collaboration with public actors is a great outset for creating solutions that really work.

We plan to continue the collaboration and to develop solutions fit for the need to pee in public space at big events.

To be continued..!