Urban Plugin: A Public Space Making and Sharing System
1st Prize Winner of Urban Public Space Design Competition 2017
Theme: SHARING THE IN-BETWEENS
Jury: Takayuki Kishii, Ryue Nishizawa, Seiichi Saito, Junji Tanigawa
Author: Siqi Li, Xiaoting Chen (MVRDV)
Although everything in China is swiftly changing, the historic center of Beijing seems to be lagging behind. Nevertheless, the new era’s demands for living, business, and social life require the city’s urban space to evolve. In particular, the dense old city lacks space. As a result, many people occupy public space with illegal structures. This is dangerous and worsens the quality of the urban environment. Can we fulfill people’s need with legal installations, albeit informal? In our proposal, we find inspiration in the sharing economy. Today we share bikes; we share umbrellas; we share cars or, by paying an affordable rent, we can have access to things when in need. Will the sharing economy create a new type of public space?
To address this challenge, we propose URBAN PLUGIN, an app to create a new type of public space. The objective is to change the urban space by sharing a prefabricated urban furniture unit – the “Urban Plugin” – that is affordable for anyone to purchase. By using the app, each user can design his or her own public space. Once space is designed and ordered, users swiftly receive the prefabricated unit. Moreover, users can set the way they want to share the space with others.
The manual to use the app is as follows:
(1) Install the app or log into the website. After, the user can start designing his or her urban space unit with the app.
(2) Choose the product and the rental period; select the level of publicity, and where the user wants the plug-ins to be installed.
(3) The service team will deliver and install it on site.
(4) All the plugins are visible on a real-time map so that one can easily find nearby plugins nearby.
(5) When the rental period comes to an end, the service team will uninstall the unit and ship it back.
All kinds of urban plugins are provided, including instant toilets with skylight, cartoon-shaped Wi-Fi spots, oversized carpets for outdoor gatherings, and smoking area makers. By consulting with designers, users can also choose to customize the plugins as they like.
With the real-time map, users will be able to see all the plugins installed in the city, know who is the provider, or whether others can share the space. Overall, we believe that by using this app people will be able to create a new kind city piece-by-piece. A new kind of public space is about to be born.
Link to the competition website.