On a recent holiday to Majorca I was impressed by the way old and young people interacted. In the evenings there would be groups of all ages sat out on the streets chatting well into the night. This was made easier by these great chairs which encouraged people to face each other.
Has anyone seen a great example of sociable public spaces? A pack of ithinkpublic badges to the best one.
Sep 30th, Kimberley Crofts said:
I have only just been reading on It’s Nice That about a seat designed by Martin Nicolausson. The seat is like a seesaw and Nicolausson hopes the design will encourage at least two people to start a conversation.
http://www.martinnicolausson.com/
Oct 1st, Holly said:
I saw similar seating in the streets of Barcelona when I was there earlier this year.
I thought it was fantastic, the wooden seats (beautiful in themselves) were individual meaning you could sit by yourself, and yet they were all positioned at arbitrary angles creating an interesting space for interaction. It meant that if you were on your own you didn’t feel odd about sitting down with a group of people you didn’t know, because the seats allowed this.
I’ve a few similar seats in London, on Southbank near Towerbridge, but I think it would be great if this was more widespread …
Oct 1st, eilidh said:
hi Paul, what you were saying about about Majorca is very similar to here in Copenhagen. There are always people from different ages, cultures etc. interacting, this is definitely encouraged by the vast amount of public spaces within the city, they are very beautiful and environmental aware, so people want to spend time there….also almost all housing here has communal facilities and areas which seems to create very sociable communities, people are always interacting whether its while they are doing they are doing their laundry and pushing their children on the swings!It’s very refreshing!
Another project i love is”the yellow chair project” by Anab Jain, it was used to encourage social interaction.
http://www.anab.in/yeartwo/yellowchair/yellow.htm
Oct 3rd, Ivo said:
they’ve got loads of those round london paul mate, there’s a few by barts hospital and some around the City. They’re made of sturdy teak i think.
Oct 9th, Paul Thurston said:
I really like that yellow chair project, very simple! I particularly liked the ‘recipe for the best Chicken Tikka Massala day’. A great way of designing an easy to use service with real benefits to your local community.
The way it develops over the days is great.
And this chair is really good too, not sure how it “gets strangers to converse in public spaces” but it certainly looks fun : )