research on public space through the use of pokemon go app
In the past, public space used to be the place where people meet, gather, share interests and where the public debate takes place. In the last decades, these functions shifted towards the online public sphere. This shift gave us an opportunity to perceive the world around us in a different way. For example, nowadays we have acces to public space all over the world via Google Street View application. Furthermore, Pokemon Go game is a good example of how people experience public space in a totally new way through media and technology. Millions of users all around the world wander around in public space to catch Pokemons. In collaboration with Anne Kamp, we dove deeper into that topic in order to find the relationship between the game and the urban perceptions.
delft city game
We used the Pokemon Go game as a tool for the excursion and the backround for the discussion on Publicness of places in the city. With 18 participants (both architecture and non-architecture students) we wandered around Delft, (The Netherlands) in small groups, using Pokemon Go game as a “GPS map”. Every time we stopped to either catch a pokemon or visit a pokestop we asked ourselves what makes it a public space. We also took pictures of elements that either contributed to or interrupted the publicness of that specific spot.
Results
Public Furniture
We started the discussion by trying to make a list of tengible elements. We focused first on furniture, the distribution of it (the relation and distances between them) and the design, that can either make people interact with each other or disable any kind of interaction. Many participants mentioned natural materials and green environment as the elements contributing to the positive feelings about the public space. On the other hand we questioned durability of them (metal vs. wood, wild vegetation vs. flowers in the pots)
Art in Public Space
Another interesting point was made by one of the participants about the temporality and changeability of the “publicness” of the space. As an example, graffiti on a private wall made the wall somehow more public in our cognition. Aforementioned temporality also includes events such as markets or festivals. Multifunctionality of public spaces makes them more inviting and open to different social groups, which contributes to the general idea of the space as a common ground for everyone.
Borders
Further more, we discussed the role of the boundaries in creation of the public space. The main point we made, was that the public space should be open day and night, accessible for everyone and clearly marked where the “private” stops and the “public” starts. At the same time it influences the way how we feel in public space. For instance, the way how the fence is arranged can give us sense of security but at the same time it can be misinterpreted as a restricted area.
Conclusion
In our search for a definition of Public Space we noticed, that people often fall into using contradictions to assign meaning to things. One of the definitions we created was: “Something is public when it is not private”.
Another topic worth mentioning is the role of boundaries in the process of defining public space. The lack of clear borders and signs, makes it confusing to distinguish the private from the public. Elements such as flowerpots and hedges, conscious use of height and materials are just a couple of tools used to claim the space. However, when used unthoughtfully, this often results in creating public by law places where you may feel unwelcome.
We certainly gained a better understanding of what perception of public space means and what aspects define it. The discussion on the subject gave us new insights on the topic and helped us in grasping the complexity of the issue.
