Blue Hooks
Urban privacy: Un-designed playground (Beach "Firule")
Project "Urban privacy: Un-designed playground" is based on an idea of increasing awareness about importance of public places in the city, precisely about the beach "Firule" and their youngest visitors who are playing among garbage, by using methods of interaction design.
Beach "Firule" is popular meeting place for different groups of people during the whole day, mostly because of it's location near the city centre, interesting microclimate that possesses, and because it remained in tacked during years. Desirable goal was to make that place even more pleasant without changing the scenery.
Two prominent groups of visitors at the beach are parents with small children that they bring there to play in the sand in the mornings and younger population that gathers at the same spot at night before going to the night club nearby. Main problem that appears is garbage that teenagers usually leave behind.
This project designs an indirect and subtle way of communication between those two groups that are not there at the same time, by using sounds recorded during the day and special acoustics and illumination of the beach at night.
On sandy part of the beach has been installed a device in shape of a caterpillar customized for children. "Caterpillar" records the sounds during the day, that is children's voices and screams, and the recording is activated by playing with that device. Recorded sounds are played from the characteristic blue hooks (hangers) that are located all around the beach. The speaker is activated by hanging thing on the hooks. This way is created an amusing game of recording and listening throughout the entire beach.
The second part of the project is the light effects. Special sensor records a position of the people during one hour in the morning when kids play there, and at the night when there are lots of young people the beach is being illuminated at the exact places where kids used to play. If somebody steps inside the illuminated spot, speaker activates again and it plays the recorded children's sounds.
In this way young population becomes aware of kids playing on that same place during every morning, which encourages them not to leave bags, bottles and all other garbage behind and in general more to take care about the appearance and order of the entire beach.
- Mariana Bucat
Faculty of Architecture University of Zagreb - Graduated Architect - Dino Ivašić
School of design University of Zagreb - Industrial Design, 3rd year - Matea Pavković
Arts Academy University of Split - Design of Visual Communication, 4th year - Maja Petrić
Arts Academy University of Split - Design of Visual Communication, Graduating student - Andrijana Primorac
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture University of Split - 1st year - Danijel Simon
Arts Academy University of Split - Design of Visual Communication, Graduating student - Leo Vinković
School of design University of Zagreb - Visual Communication, 2nd year
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