Park-Park

How can we transform parking lots into spaces of connection and engagement for communities?

A research project with 9 other students that looked into creating an urban installation using material assemblages to activate parking lots for PARK(ing) Day 2018.

The One-Day Urban Installation

background

PARK(ing) Day is an annual worldwide event where community members transform parking spots into vibrant public spaces for one day.

Duration

Jul - Sep 2018

In Singapore, this event was organised in collaboration with the Urban Redevelopment Authority(URA). I was the Assistant Project Director of the event and also worked with a team of 9 other students to propose and design Park-Park, an urban installation that created conducive spaces for 3 community groups to host their activities during the event.

Scope

Conceptualisation, Workshop Facilitation, Prototyping, Execution

strategy

Designing For Communities

3 different community groups were identified to be brought onboard for this project. They represented different communities, allowing us to design around the requirements of the different activities that they hosted.

Design Process

Given that there was a tight timeline for the project, we decided to allocate more time within the two months for prototyping and fabrication. Hence, it was decided that the design process would be streamlined and kept compact.

what I did

stakeholder engagement workshop

Facilitating workshop to understand the needs of the community groups and ideate together.

digital and physical prototyping

Rationalising geometry for the balloon canopy using parametric design tools and creating physical prototypes of bamboo nodes for testing.

fabrication and installation

Coordinated on-site installation and liaised with community groups regarding use of spaces.

Stakeholder Engagement Workshop

Facilitating workshop to understand the needs of the community groups and ideate together.

The stakeholder engagement workshop was conducted as a method to accelerate the design process. Over the span of 5 hours, several exercises were conducted with the representatives from the 3 community groups to allow us to understand their needs and define the problem space. We also ideated together which was very effective as we managed to obtain feedback rapidly and allowed us to uncover more considerations that they had.

workshop objectives

01 Create mutual understanding of physical and spatial needs of the community groups' outreach events

02 Find common needs between the community groups that allow shared use of infrastructures

03 Find potential for co-location of planned events and begin to understand the infrastructure needed to support collaborations

Sketches from stakeholder engagement workshop

solution

Sustainable Materials

Being only a one day installation, the design needed to be as lightweight and as sustainable as possible. Local waste materials such as repurposed bamboo poles and used plastic chairs were hence used as the main materials for the infrastructure.

bamboo poles

Bamboo poles were sourced from previous projects and cut to the desired sizes required. The poles were a good base material to use as they were very sturdy and lightweight.

plastic chairs

Used plastic chairs were sourced from the scrap dealers. Each chair was hosed down and the chair legs cut to different heights as the various types of activities required different seating settings.

Specialised Infrastructure

With each of the community groups having different types of programmes, some being more communal in nature while others being performances, we had to design each set of structures specifically to the activities being conducted.

performances, demos & classes

Bamboo nodes were designed to be able to store props in order to accommodate the performances and demonstrations that some of the groups were planning. These were kept compact to allow for more space for the performers.

Chairs were placed in a circular arrangement for demos and tutorial purposes.

communal meals & conversations

A central bamboo node was designed as a long table structure that would display the ingredients and also host conversations around it.

Surrounding it were smaller nodes designed for smaller group seating as well as cooking stations.

sheltered play space

A balloon canopy structure was designed using parametric design tools to house a kids' play area and also doubled as the main shelter for the urban park. This helped to provide shade and cool the kids down as they were playing. This structure was also versatile as it could expand or contract depending on the play area required.

Chairs were arranged around the play space to allow parents to sit around and keep an eye on their children.

takeaways

Have an adaptable design thinking mindset.

The design process might not always be fixed. Depending on the timeline and the demands of the projects, the different stages can be conducted at the same time or even revert to a previous step. The process should be kept fluid and spontaneous while still keep in mind the design intentions to allow for better solutions to be created.

Designing for communities is hard, but very rewarding.

Park-Park was an interesting project that involved the active participation of the different communities and created spaces that helped to facilitate the execution of their activities. As a designer, this project had an interesting design process that involved giving the agency back to the users. While liaising with the different stakeholders was not easy, it was satisfying to see the users enjoying the spaces created after the project was executed.