Technology has miraculously enabled people to stay connected, informed, and entertained, from every street and corner. It is usual for someone to stare at their screens despite being surrounded by people in public spaces that are designed to offer respite from the constant hubbub of urban life and engage people in interactions.
The hyper-productivity mindset with passing time has eventually made humans more dissatisfied and caught up with things in the name of efficiency. And our feelings for the role of public spaces, in general are no different from this fundamental idea. It’s this similar mindset that propels the civic planners to squeeze in an extra office block, or a housing unit, or a road for quick mobility – instead of creating actual quality public space for plenty reasons – but mostly in the name of ‘efficient’ and ’cost effective’ city planning.
Does this mean our devices are getting better but our public spaces are not? What can we do for these outdated, poorly performing public spaces/streets suffering with this quality crisis and outdated design?
Design Challenge
The design challenge is to create an installation in the public realm, that has the ability elevate its people from these busy streams of thought / break their long screen time / introduce an element of play in their busy urban lives.
Awards
A total of 500 entries will be accepted in the competition till the last deadline of registration. If the competition reaches a total registered entries of 500, then the registration will be closed at a total prize pool of 15,000 USD.
