A few thoughts.

The atrium of a school of architecture at a university in the middle of a midwest state is not an "urban space."

That being said, I'm trying to figure out what the experiment is, and how you will evaluate success/failure, etc.. what is the hypothesis? That in a school of architecture people will congregate around temporary installations?

Given the predispositions of the audience (arch students/faculty) that seems like a given, since they are already quite sympathetic to your efforts and trained to be curious/explore these types of situations.

I would suggest you try to be a bit more sincere with the experiment by developing a real hypothesis and putting the project in some real test conditions, where the results will be meaningful.

Otherwise, this risks looking like many other lightweight "thesis" projects from architecture students.

Posted by: bigbear on Nov 02, 09 | 8:39 am

thanks for the insightful comment, bigbear,

In response to your questions, the installations in the architecture school right now are for an experiment on the interaction between the objects and the individual users.

It has been a few days since the tents were first deployed. So far, I've observed several behavioral patterns from the users.

1. if there is an event in the atrium, people are more likely to gather in the largest tent at the base of the stairs. On normal days, people usually occupy the more private tents.

2. although people don't use the second tent (to the base of stairs) as much, they do gravitate towards that tent, and sit on the adjacent stairs more often than when the tent was not there.

3. people often readjust the position of the red cushions to their own comfort, however, they are less inclined to adjust the positions of the tents.

4. the usage has been slightly increased over the days, i think people are getting familiar to this installation and more inclined to use it.


in a few weeks, i am hoping to develop an outdoor version, and test it in the university town. Eventually, i am also hoping to test it in the streets/plazas in bigger cities. I believe that the information collected from this test will benefit further versions.

the evaluation metrics will be based on usage, for example, amount of conversations taken places in the installation, as well as amount of activities increase around the installation.

I appreciate any further comments. thanks.

Posted by: a.h on Nov 02, 09 | 1:25 pm

i have to applaud you for actually undertaking a physical artifact based thesis investigation but would like to caution that your current investigations do seem like they will just reaffirm our understandings of public space. what about these investigations will challenge these current assumptions? is there something about lighting, materiality, etc. that is understood? is there an investigation of wireless nodes that are open and therefore create spaces that people can virtually network?
there have been a number of good art installation projects over the years that investigate domesticity in the public realm? would this be your interest?
i think in order to get good data, you have to be much clearer and insightful about your installations.

Posted by: futureboy on Nov 02, 09 | 7:58 pm

bigbear, there are many scales of urbanity, even in the midwest it can exist. maybe shocking to some but it's really in how one chooses to define the word, isn't it? a university is definitely urban when compared to the outlying countryside beyond.

but i do think there is something interesting about the density of midwestern cities/towns, being less than other cities, and how that may factor into your investigations. An architectural installation would likely have a different impact in Madison vs New York City.

you chose to open the project talking about virtual networks. i'd like to join futureboy in saying that thinking about that aspect to public space would be a way to really drive this project in a concise direction. general investigations like this are obviously always relevant, but how has the public space of the virtual affected our perceptions of public space in the real (and vice versa) and how do they interact in this new world? it could go many ways.

Posted by: Micah McKelvey on Nov 05, 09 | 11:27 am

Get those tents out onto the Quad, Green Street or downtown Champaign and see what happens when non-architecture students, the Champaign homeless population and drunk frat boys encounter them. By broadening site of this project you'll be able to not only make broader findings about urbanism, but more specific comments on the Champaign and U of I community, or vast differences in how different residents of the same community react to changes in their urban fabric.

Don't get trapped in the world of your own head and don't over intellectualize this stuff until you really get it out there and see what people do with it. I wish I had taken my own advice a few years ago. Looks like you're on the right track.

Posted by: tba_vebber on Nov 09, 09 | 12:59 pm