E-28-20121104-ENG

28 Elisava design CultureTechnology Communication
Temes de Disseny

speed
reconsidering time
in design

Editorial
The time factor in urban regeneration
Open source urban planning for augmented citizens
Smart cities, smart lights. Digital signage and the city experience
Slow Design: “cultivating” culture and sensoriality in the artifacts shape and use
Common rhythms
Unlimited nanotechnology
From microchip to the Planet
New relationship between Visual Communication Design and Interaction Design
Index
28 Elisava design CultureTechnology Communication
Temes de Disseny
Edited by
ELISAVA Escola Superior de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
All rights reserved
© Of the texts, their authors
© Of the images, their authors
© Of the edition, Fundació Privada ELISAVA Escola Universitària
La Rambla, 30-32. 08002 Barcelona
www.elisava.net
Editorial team
Rafael de Balanzó, Raffaella Perrone
Editorial Board
Ramon Benedito, Daniel Cid, Ignasi Cubiñà, Dennis Doordan,
Vicente López, Javier Nieto, Javier Peña
Editorial board secretary
Maribel Gelabert
Editorial production
ELISAVA - Marketing and Communication department
Translations
UNILEXIS - Translation and Interpreting Services
Literature review
Biblioteca Enric Bricall
Graphic Design
David Lorente
ELISAVA - Marketing and Communication department
(Design Area)
Cover
"Bouncing Carpet" de www.irenegonzalo.com. Photo: Irene Gonzalo
Printing
Gràfiques Ortell, Barcelona
Paper
Fredigoni Arcoprint 110 g/m2 (interior) and 300 g/m2 (cover)
ISSN: 0213-6023
D.L.: B. 41541-2011
Barcelona. november 2012
Digital edition
http://tdd.elisava.net
Giovanni Flore - Alfio Pozzoni
Helena Casanova - Jesús Hernández
Belinda Tato - José Luis Vallejo
Heura Ventura
Eleonora Lupo
Andrea Mendoza
Andrea Di Salvo - Paolo Tamborrini
Carlo Ratti
Rafael de Balanzó – Raffaella Perrone
7
10
22
34
44
54
66
76
84

7
David Casacuberta The Web as Utopia
6
Why talk about speed?
In the 1909 first Futurist Manifesto, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti declared, “la
magnificenza del mondo s’è arricchita di una bellezza nuova, la bellezza del-
la velocità” (the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the
beauty of speed). By the early 20th century, speed became a way of life, a goal, a
moral code, almost a religion.1 One century after the steam engine’s invention,
man was able to travel, communicate and provide food and goods which were
previously far out of reach. This was “the revolution”!
Speed was a tangible, quantifiable, comparable quality which transformed
man’s modus operandi. It was synonymous of fast versus slow. This “physical”
speed of bodies in motion expanded both spatial limits and knowledge, while
also prompting the quest for new languages.
Twenty years later, in the 1930s, Streamlined or aerodynamic design was
born in the United States, a phenomenon featuring the redesign of products
based on their external appearance, especially with the goal of communicat-
ing the concept of speed and swiftness. Transport was the first industrial sec-
tor where Streamlined design was applied. Beyond their strictly technical and
functional needs, cars, planes, ships and buses had to “lure” and “fascinate” the
public with their forms. Soon aerodynamic shapes became “fashionable”, and
they began to be used in various spheres of design and architecture. At that
point, speed was synonymous with modernity.
Editorial
1 Marinetti, F.T. La nuova
religione-morale
della velocità -11 de
mayo de 1916 [online].
[Consultation: October
25, 2012]. Available at:
http://www.futurismo.
altervista.org/manifesti/
religioneMorale.htm
Rafael de Balanzó – Raffaella Perrone

28 ELISAVA Temes de Disseny
98
Eleonora Lupo recounts the genesis and evolution of the slow design concept
until today, offering examples on how contemporary young designers are apply-
ing the “slow approach” in their projects. The examples cited encompass every-
thing from highly experimental projects to mass-produced products, revealing
a major current trend in which the sensorial quality of objects is “cultivated”.
On the other hand, Andrea Mendoza focuses her sights on the personal
rhythms of private individuals who are trying to survive in cities like Jerusa-
lem, Bogotá, Palermo and Istanbul. In other cases, individuals use grouping
mechanisms to organise themselves into creative communities with the aim of
improving their own livelihoods and, indirectly, enhancing life in their cities.
On a very different level, the article by Heura Ventura features an examina-
tion of the nano scale as a basic factor in the development of products’ life cycle.
She introduces us to the nanotechnology of materials which can improve prod-
ucts’ usability, maintain their outer appearance and programme their capacity
for self-repair.
Finally, the articles by Ratti and Di Salvo-Tamborrini speculate on digital
technology as an intrinsic factor in our everyday material environment, and
they discuss research projects currently underway at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab
and the Politecnico di Torino, respectively.
Carlo Ratti focuses on the proliferation of access points to data offered by
modern products. The new “digital age” features also imply rethinking the outer
appearance of these objects and their interaction with users. This reflection is
then extended to projects that “imagine” hybrid physical-digital spaces where
the built environment is enriched by growing strata of digital information.
Andrea Di Salvo and Paolo Tamborrini close by suggesting a new approach
to training programmes, based on university research and teaching, in an effort
to avoid misalignments between product design, visual communication design
and interaction design. The article presents the approach used at the Politecnico
di Torino for the visual language “revision” of the control station interfaces for
future vehicles.
We hope that the miscellaneous ideas, projects and narratives showcased in
this issue of Elisava Temes de Disseny may prove interesting to our reader-
ship and pave the way for broader reflection into other spheres of design. We
believe it necessary to reconsider time as a “meaningful” feature of objects and
our “way” of life, and we trust these pages will give us the opportunity to do so.
In the 1960s, the paradigm of speed was replaced by mobility. The develop-
ment of broadcasting media spurred this change in favour of a kind of mobility
that has nothing to do with physical movement through space but rather with
people’s access to information. In the closing decades of the 20th century, lap-
tops, tablets and smart phones multiplied our ability to be “connected” at the
speed of light, even while sitting on a sofa.
In the 21st century, mobility is no longer a novelty. We actually take it for
granted. Our babies travel by plane, and we change jobs, partners, flats and
cities more regularly than our parents did. This has entailed a huge shift in the
perception of our material environment, as well as a change in values.
If we consider speed as “the relationship between space, or the distance that
an object runs and the time it takes”, we realise that today this physical-scientif-
ic definition is no longer adequate. It is not valid. Why not?
In this 28th issue of Elisava Temes de Disseny, we offer an interdisciplin-
ary outlook that allows us to reflect on the concept of speed. We do so from the
standpoint of how fast we use and consume things in our immediate environ-
ment and how we perceive and process information.
For this reason, the various authors barely use the word “speed”, but they
do address the concepts of interaction, interface, pace, slow, soft qualities and
smart cities.
The articles can be divided into two major groups: the first reflects on urban
space, and the second examines more everyday objects and products.
The first three articles present projects that involve a new way of design-
ing and perceiving cities. Casanova-Hernández and Tato-Vallejo reflect on time
in the innovative new design strategies for urban interventions. Flore-Pozzoni
highlight the city from the passer-by’s perception and interactive experience.
The transformation and evolution of cities is dominated by lengthy bureau-
cratic processes untied from the active dynamics of the social networks and far
from the real times and needs of citizens in this period of systemic crisis. The
article by Helena Casanova and Jesús Hernández stresses the importance of the
time factor when addressing the new social, economic, environmental and cul-
tural challenges.
In the era of digital time, the article by Belinda Tato y Jose Luis Vallejo in-
troduces the complementary view of public space as “an augmented reality” that
fosters the hybridisation of the physical with the digital as a common good de-
tached from official hierarchical bodies.
Giovanni Flore and Alfio Pozzoni, in their article on digital signage, address
how applied graphics are affecting light levels in the intelligent digital city. Cit-
izen-consumers are no longer mere spectators like Mallarmé’s and Benjamin’s
flaneûr but rather have become actors and key players in the urban space, inter-
acting with the commercial spaces in modern cities.
And downsizing to the object’scale Eleonora Lupo and Andrea Mendoza sug-
gest rethinking the pace and time of everyday experience in order to find new
“emotional values” in objects.
Raffaella Perrone—Rafael de Balanzó Editorial

Cultural density
Self-organisation
Self-repair
Gas barrier
Smart car
Open source
Creativity
Sensorial qualities
E-bike
Systemic design
Digital signage
Interaction design
Social innovation
Interaction
Self-cleaning
Interface
Smart light
Mallification
Nanotechnology
Digital visual language
Networking
Augmented reality
Beat
Control system
Smart home
Social software
Wikicity
Smart city
Slow design
Soft approach
In contrast to the former “solid modernity”1 stage, the ongoing second stage
of modernity, referred to by Zigmunt Bauman as “liquid modernity”, has been
especially characterised by the time factor. This analogy to liquids as a state of
matter that changes in shape over time, not only graphically portrays our cur-
rent society’s tremendous capacity for transformation, but also highlights the
fast-paced rate at which this transformation occurs.
In turn, liquidly modern cities are now more than ever characterised by a
constantly evolving social structure, influenced, among other factors, by immi-
grant flows, economic fluctuations, rising unemployment mainly concentrated
in the slums or market pressures, all producing substantial mutations in the
social structure of certain districts.
Most often, the rate at which social structures evolve is far greater than the
rate of transformation of urban habitats in response to these changes. This leads
to situations of conflict that degrade urban life. Such degradation is often ag-
gravated by the lack of quick response mechanisms enabling municipal agencies
to respond to new situations.
On the other hand, the degradation of urban and social structures in cer-
tain areas of the city has traditionally been combated with urban planning op-
erations aimed at urban regeneration, involving the demolition of part of the
consolidated urban structure and the construction of new buildings and facili-
ties. These interventions were executed in a context of strong economic activity
mobilised by private capital expenditures or alternatively, they were backed by
the sound financial condition of municipal agencies capable of promoting gov-
ernment action. But what happens when the private sector is at a standstill as a
Test intervention
Temporary intervention
Emergency intervention
Mutant intervention
Urban acupuncture
Jesús Hernández (1967) is an architect,
urban planner and landscaper. Together with
Helena Casanova, he is a founding partner of
Casanova+Hernández Architects (2001) a firm based
in Rotterdam, Netherlands, which executes projects
in both Europe and Asia. Since 2002, he has also
worked as a researcher and professor at several
European universities and the Berlage Institute.
The time factor
in urban regeneration
The regeneration of urban life is a central theme in
many European cities that are in need of new and
innovative action strategies. The time factor has
become a decisive tool, not only in the development
and management of such strategies, but also in the
design and operation of the relevant interventions in
public spaces.
“Urban regeneration is
supported by new urban
acupuncture strategies
developed exclusively in
public spaces, based on
independent but coordinated
spot interventions”
1 Bauman, Z. Liquid
Modernity. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2000
Helena Casanova Jesús Hernández

1312
Estonoesunsolar strategy in Zaragoza
In the Estonoesunsolar (this is not a vacant urban plot) strategy developed in the
city of Zaragoza, the convergence of a number of urban and social factors created
the need for a specific, unconventional strategy based on quick response times.
Rapid urban decay in certain areas of the historic centre of Zaragoza was evi-
denced by the increasing number of abandoned vacant lots. Also, the dispropor-
tionate increase in the number of immigrants living in the most underprivileged
areas of the city coincided with the relocation of part of the indigenous popula-
tion to newly created suburban areas. Rapid social changes produced profound
transformations in household composition in historic downtown Zaragoza
homes, with considerable increases in the number of families and consequently,
in the number of children. Unemployment was also on the rise, coinciding with
the onset of the Spanish financial crisis, the early stages of which had a stron-
ger impact on the immigrant population living
in these areas. All of these factors combined
created an exceptional situation generated by
a downward spiral of events that generally fos-
ter urban degradation and can eventually lead
to serious social problems, something that has
already occurred in the historical centres of a
number of European cities.
In light of this situation, the city of Zara-
goza developed the Estonoesunsolar strategy,
coordinated by the architect Patrizia Di Monte.
This strategy involved the creation of a techni-
result of the economic crisis and the public sector, immobilised by new austerity
policies to reduce the spending deficit, is unable to create urban regeneration
interventions by itself? What new tools are available to municipal councils for
promoting public life and social cohesion within damaged urban settings?
Acupuncture strategies in public spaces
Although most problems relating to urban life degradation are not new, many
European cities have shown a growing concern for finding solutions to these
issues. On the one hand, such concern is due to increased social instability in
towns with high rates of socially maladapted immigrants, unsafe conditions for
the people who live in urban centres where public life is disappearing from the
streets or the lack of social cohesion latent in new urban developments. On the
other hand, it is motivated by the long-lasting European economic crisis, which
has alarmingly reduced the ability of traditional urban mechanisms to act as
urban regenerating tools in some cities.
Under this new scenario, interesting alternative proposals are being devel-
oped in certain European cities to respond effectively to today’s new challenges.
As such, regeneration is supported by new urban acupuncture strategies devel-
oped exclusively in public spaces, based on independent but coordinated spot
interventions that could be appropriately termed “public space acupuncture”2.
These strategies are developed using low-cost interventions that seek to achieve
the strongest urban life regenerating impact with the least amount of resources.
They combine new tools, such as citizen participation throughout different parts
of the process, with other factors, such as the timeliness of interventions or even
their ability to mutate over time.
Although these are still pioneering initiatives that have emerged as isolated
actions, they do share many things in common and could very well become a
new action tool that could be routinely used by European municipal manage-
ment agencies in the near future. Such initiatives could lead to the creation of a
new urbanism discipline that would include its own analysis, strategy creating
and process management mechanisms. This is why some of the more interesting
strategies recently developed in several European cities have been studied in a
research funded by the Dutch government, which we have named Public Space
Acupuncture3.
In studying these strategies, the time factor has been found to be one of the
major elements that determine the success of most of the researched case studies.
Following is an overview of three cases analysed, located in Zaragoza, Utrecht
and Vienna, as well as three of the main ways to incorporate the time factor into
the public space acupuncture strategies analysed.
i gravalosdimonte arquitectos. San José, Zaragoza, 2010. Photo: Patrizia di Monte, Ignacio Grávalos
t gravalosdimonte arquitectos. San Blas, Zaragoza, 2009.
Photo: Patrizia di Monte, Ignacio Grávalos
i Zaragoza
2 Solà-Morales, M.;
Frampton, K.; Ibelings,
H. A Matter of Things.
Rotterdam: Nai
Publishers, 2008
3 Hernández Mayor, J.;
Casanova García, H. “The
Regeneration of Public
Life”. Scape Magazine,
No. 1 (2011), p.18-25
i gravalosdimonte arquitectos.
San Agustín, Zaragoza, 2009.
Photo: Patrizia di Monte, Ignacio Grávalos

1514
Like many other new urban developments in the Netherlands, in its early
stages, it was rapidly colonised by “pioneer” residents who had no connection
to the place or amongst one another. At this stage, social relations tend to be
almost non-existent and social cohesion is extremely fragile.
The Beyond 4 strategy developed in Leidsche Rijn was named after one of the
meanings of “beyond”, i.e., “further-reaching than the usual planning customs”.
It is a medium-term action strategy initiated
in 2001, which has consisted of a number of
actions and artistic interventions in public
spaces intended to promote relationships
between the citizens and their place of resi-
dence, on the one hand, and to strengthen
relationships between neighbours and en-
rich the town’s public life, on the other.
The time factor plays an important role
in the development and management of the
Beyond strategy. Firstly, because it was origi-
nally designed as a ten-year strategy. And it
is during this period – when the new urban
development is still in its growth phase and
lacks some of the basic facilities – when the
strategy can be a more efficient tool to help
build cultural and social structures that can
keep on growing stronger on their own after
this period.
An independent organisation called Bu-
reau Beyond was created to develop and manage the strategy. It was formed
by a small team of specialists in charge of creating the complete interventions
programme, designating the participating artists, designers and architects and
planning the start of each project and its content.
This team controlled the strategy’s implementation
pace by organising, within a short period of time,
temporary interventions that were capable of ad-
dressing the new needs of Leidsche Rijn’s growing
population. Apart from the difficulty of this task,
the very idea is truly exciting: having a team of ex-
perts continuously working on analysing the social
consequences of any shortcomings in the develop-
ment of the plan and creating a complementary
programme to balance urban life and generate some
kind of cultural and social identity.
The time factor plays a vital role in the develop-
ment and management of the Beyond strategy and
also determines the specific nature of the interven-
cal office that would firstly devote its efforts to respond quickly and effectively
to some of the urban problems identified. This technical office, which is a part of
the Zaragoza Housing municipal entity, combined an employment programme
to provide jobs to 40 unemployed people in the area, with a plan to clean up the
vacant lots. This later became a strategy for making public use of the abandoned
plots. As such, many of the abandoned private and public plots in the densely-
populated historic centre of Zaragoza became small squares, playgrounds and
gardens interwoven into the city’s network of urban public spaces.
The time factor played a crucial role in the development of this strategy.
Quick responsiveness coupled with the technical office’s operational autonomy
were some of the keys to its success.
The office, which had a low budget that was mostly used to pay the salaries
of employment programme participants and to a lesser extent, to purchase the
necessary materials to carry out the interventions, completed 14 interventions
in public spaces during its first year and 15 during the second. This means that
all the formalities required to get the owner’s permission to carry out the inter-
vention – deciding on the use it would be given through a citizen participation
process, the design of the space itself and its final construction – were all carried
out within less than four weeks on average by intervention. At the same time,
the technical office’s quick responsiveness in managing and maintaining com-
pleted interventions was essential to ensure the success of this strategy, modify-
ing less successful interventions as needed and learning from past experience in
order to improve on future interventions.
The very essence of the Estonoesunsolar strategy, which is carried out in plots
that will eventually be constructed, highlights the temporary nature of the in-
terventions. But regardless of how long each intervention lasts depending on
the availability of each plot, the overall strategy might very well become a per-
manent one, as would happen with the creation of a continuous cycle of vacant
lots being constructed, while new empty spaces are being generated and in turn
colonised by public space acupuncture interventions.
The Beyond strategy in the new town of Leidsche Rijn
in Utrecht
Leidsche Rijn is a new, rapidly developing residential neighbourhood in Utrecht.
Initially conceived in the nineties as an urban plan for new plant communities,
Leidsche Rijn is considered the largest urban development carried out in the
Netherlands in recent years, with total inhabitants at 16,000 in 2001 and 25,000
in 2011, and still growing to this day.
This extraordinary and fast-paced growth has been bolstered by strong de-
mand for new housing in the Netherlands in the past few years. The result has
been a gigantic mono-functional urban development based on the construction
of stand-alone, semi-detached or terraced homes, all of them with private gar-
dens.
t Bik van der Pol y Korteknie Stuhlmacher
Architecten. Nomads in Residence, Leidsche
Rijn, 2004. Photo: Jos van der Pol
i Milohnic & Paschke i.s.m. Resonatorcoop. The Parasol, Leidsche Rijn, 2001–04.
Photo: Misha de Ridder
i Leidsche Rijn in Utrecht
4 Van Gestel, T.; Heezen,
H.; Zonnenberg, N. Art As
Urban Strategy: Beyond
Leidsche Rijn. Rotterdam:
NAi Publishers, 2010.
Helena Casanova, Jesús Hernández The time factor in urban regeneration

1716
A transformable strategy in the public spaces
of the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna
After many years of planning, the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna was inaugurated
in 2001 without any plans having been made regarding the use that would be
given to public spaces in its courtyards. High new construction costs, disabled
access problems and lifelessness in the museums’ public spaces gave the new
cultural complex a negative image, hampering the arrival of visitors and the
goal of becoming a new activity centre in both the city and the neighbourhood.
To counteract such motionlessness in its public spaces, the
complex’s management held a competition among young archi-
tects to design a multi-functional urban furniture system. The
winning team was PPAG with the ENZI system, which was first
exhibited in igloo-shaped form at the MuseumsQuartier in the
winter of 2002.
The strategy implemented in MuseumsQuartier aims to en-
courage public life and transform its empty courtyards into ap-
pealing public spaces for the use and enjoyment of Viennese
people. It is based on combining an attractive and versatile urban
furniture system with a varied programme of carefully planned
seasonal activities. The system’s 116 modular elements, built using
expanded polystyrene, could be easily relocated within the com-
plex’s courtyards. Also, these modular elements were designed
with a number of possible combinations in mind to create different
spatial configurations. Soon thereafter, museum visitors respond-
ed enthusiastically to this strategy, using the modular elements as
a resting place and turning the museum’s courtyards into popular
meeting places. At the same time, diverse cultural programmes
were developed, including concerts, dance performances, fashion
shows and winter games, turning the MuseumsQuartier into a
new vibrant public space in the Viennese cultural scene.
The time factor was the central axis that linked the entire
strategy, making it a novel and exceptional concept. The strategy
was initially conceived this way – not as a series of interventions
situated in different points in space, but rather as a series of con-
secutive interventions that made it turn into a constantly evolv-
ing, mutant strategy.
The careful planning of this strategy’s evolution is being coor-
dinated by the MuseumsQuartier E+B – the department respon-
sible for scheduling the centre’s cultural programme – and PPAG
architects, who are responsible for the specific design of each in-
tervention. Together they coordinate and design the activity pro-
gramme and the modular system’s different spatial configurations
for the interventions planned throughout the year. They control
the pace of urban life transformation in the courtyards. In this
tions themselves, which may be defined as emergen-
cy or test interventions.
Sometimes, the interventions were carried out in
specific neighbourhood locations due to the lack of
basic facilities during the early stages of the urban
development. Temporary pavilions were built for
this purpose, such as The Paper Dome, designed by
Shingeru Ban and built in 2004 with 700 cardboard
tubes, which serves as a temporary multi-use venue
to host all kinds of events such as concerts, dance
performances, theatre plays, winter ice skating and
art fairs.
Other temporary interventions serve as tests to assess social acceptance
of certain programs and the feasibility of future permanent interventions in
certain locations. In fact, some of the most successful temporary interventions,
such as The Building, conceived by artist Stanley Brouwn in collaboration with
architect Bertus Mulder as a temporary exhibition hall, have now become per-
manent. The Building, currently a visual icon and one of the main cultural cen-
tres of this town, is formed by two superimposed prisms that are 27.3 metres
long, 3.9 metres wide and 3.9 metres
high, rotated at a 90-degree angle
with respect to one another.
Beyond was originally conceived
as a mutant strategy that was in-
tended to evolve and transform over
time. Some of the so-called “para-
site” interventions were intended as
actions that could be relocated to
different parts of town in order to
implement certain programmes and,
in turn, surprise and awaken peo-
ple’s curiosity. The town’s sense of
busyness was thus heightened and
activity programmes were spread
across its different areas. The inter-
ventions called The Parasol, Site Bazeille and Nomads in Residence are some
examples of parasite pavilions where guest artists would live and work, carrying
out activity programmes intended to help residents become active agents in the
town’s urban life.
i Shigeru Ban. The Paper Dome, Leidsche Rijn, 2004. Photo: Misha de Ridder
i Stanley Brouwn i.s.m. Bertus Mulder. Het Gebouw,
Leidsche Rijn, 2005. Photo: Misha de Ridder
t PPAG architects ztgmbh. Museumsquartier, Vienna,
2005–09. Photo: PPAG
t Museumsquartier, Vienna

1918
ventions, evaluate their results and address any shortcomings either by imple-
menting new interventions or making changes to existing ones. In most cases,
these offices are run by small, highly versatile and operationally autonomous
teams of experts.
The time factor in temporary interventions:
Test and emergency interventions
Interventions implemented in public spaces, such as the renovation of streets
or the creation of new squares, typically have a limited life span. Even interven-
tions designed for the long term will need to be modified or completely renovat-
ed at some point in time, due to normal wear and tear of materials used, dam-
specific case, however, this pace is controlled not by reacting quickly to urban
and social constraints, but by creating a basic rhythm of transformation that
is sufficiently flexible to allow for the steady introduction of new activities or
special events to continually invigorate urban life.
The controlled manipulation of public space appearance and activity trans-
form the city into an urban theatre5, where citizens concurrently play the roles
of actors and spectators. This urban theatre underscores the most public aspect
of urban life, as compared to other strategies that enhance its more domestic or
collective aspects.
The staging of public life also calls for an appropriate setting. This setting is
made up of the Baroque patios of the courtyard’s former stables, where the his-
torical identity of the place blends with today’s contemporary culture. Cloistered
by architecture, in the manner of an Italian piazza, the space becomes the ideal
setting for impromptu public life performances.
The strategy’s thorough temporal planning firstly results in the citizens’
heightened sense of curiosity and attraction to the novelty of this idea. Sec-
ondly, its ever-changing nature, combined with a well-designed
activity programme, captures and maintains citizens’ interest,
thus encouraging people to make use of this public space into a
habit. Eventually, the public space goes from being exceptional
to commonplace for many citizens and is used as an impro-
vised gathering, leisure and resting place embedded into the
city’s public life.
The time factor and the strategy management process:
Interactive management systems
If we view cities as constantly evolving, complex organisms, we can see how ur-
ban planning is one of the main mechanisms that control some of their functions,
regulating how they grow, dictating how existing urban fabrics need to be trans-
formed and defining the activities that must be developed within different areas.
Each municipality has its own mechanism for controlling the city’s proper
operation under certain conventional conditions. But at times when certain
parts of the city are subject to extraordinary situations, the balance of urban
life comes under threat. Under such special circumstances, most of our cities
are unprepared for reacting quickly to new challenges, with urban planning
mechanisms failing to provide an effective response. These circumstances call
for flexible and perhaps unorthodox mechanisms capable of responding quickly
to new situations, such as the strategies developed in Estonoesunsolar in Zara-
goza and Beyond Leidsche Rijn in Utrecht.
On the other hand, in most of the cases analysed, specific management of-
fices were created to monitor the development of each strategy. Both the Es-
tonoesunsolar technical office, a branch of the Zaragoza Housing Department,
and Bureau Beyond in Utrecht, were created to facilitate the execution of inter-
5 Sennet, R. The Fall of
Public Man. New York:
Knopf, 1977.
i Comparación de las intervenciones en las tres ciudades.
“The time factor was the
central axis that linked
the entire strategy,
making it a novel and
exceptional concept”

2120
age resulting from accidents or vandalism or, occasionally, lack of use resulting
from changes in urban habits.
With this in mind, new alternative interventions in public spaces need to
take greater account of their estimated life span and adapt their design and
choice of materials accordingly to obtain a more efficient and sustainable prod-
uct. Also, careful synchronisation of suitable activity programmes with the in-
tervention’s useful life helps foster maximum use of the public space during
such periods.
Temporary interventions are generally efficient tools to regenerate urban
life, as their short life expectancy allows for synchronisation with a specific use
throughout their life span.
Strategies based on temporary interventions have two main purposes: either
to serve as emergency solutions that address specific urban problems, as in the
case of interventions carried out in the vacant lots of Zaragoza, or to operate as
test interventions to later develop more permanent ones, as occurred with some
of the temporary pavilions built in Leidsche Rijn or with the first generation of
ENZI expanded polystyrene modules, the success of which later evolved into
ENZOS modules made with polyethylene for added durability.
A well-known example of emergency interventions carried out in public
spaces was the strategy developed by Aldo van Eyck6 between 1947 and 1978,
which consisted in creating more than 700 interventions that transformed many
vacant lots and small interstitial spaces of Amsterdam’s public spaces into chil-
dren’s playgrounds, some of which are still in use today. This strategy met a
growing need for spaces where children could play, encouraging the use of pub-
lic spaces and interaction among citizens.
An exemplary case of a test intervention is the strategy developed by New
York City’s Traffic Department, which banned vehicles in Times Square – one
of the city’s most congested areas – turning the avenue into a pedestrian area
equipped with 376 chaise lounges. This test intervention carried out during the
summer of 2009 not only intended to record the behaviour of traffic in the vicin-
ity of the square and the resulting transformation of urban life in this part of the
city, but also sought to determine how citizens and public opinion would react
to the situation, thus projecting the future consequences of potential, longer-
term actions.
Mutant interventions: Strategies that evolve over time
One of the most noteworthy examples of live public space is Paley Park7 in New
York (1967). One of the reasons for its popularity is that this small public space
serves as a quiet island where people can relax, sheltered from the city noise.
Another reason is that its urban furniture, comprising movable chairs,
makes it possible to use the space in many different ways, depending on the
time of day, the season or the need to be alone or in a group. In such a manner,
public space is conceived as a part of the city that undergoes continuous trans-
formation, evolving steadily not only throughout the day, but also throughout
the seasons of the year.
This ability to transform public spaces in response to different functional
requirements that change over time has huge growth potential within public
space acupuncture strategies. The alternative way to traditional, static, unifunc-
tional interventions, which paraphrasing Zigmunt Bauman could be defined as
“solid strategies”, are mobile, mutable, transformable interventions that comprise
what might be termed “liquid strategies”, such as the strategy developed in the
MuseumsQuartier courtyards in Vienna.
Public space acupuncture strategies based on mutant in-
terventions should carefully plan for variations in the differ-
ent configurations that are going to be developed over time, as
with the relocation of “parasite” interventions in Leidsche Rijn
or the development of all the configurations that will be created
with ENZOS modules during different seasons of the year in
the MuseumsQuartier courtyards in Vienna.
At the theatre, a script unfolds along a succession of scenes
on stage, with actors playing their roles in front of changing
backdrops. Likewise mutant interventions need to be carefully
planned out, taking into account factors such as the number
and duration of the scenes, the actors involved in the play and
the nature of the public space’s physical transformation.
“The alternative
way to traditional,
static, unifunctional
interventions, which
paraphrasing Zigmunt
Bauman could be
defined as ‘solid
strategies’, are mobile,
mutable, transformable
interventions that
comprise what might
be termed ‘liquid
strategies’”
7 Kayden, J.S. Privately
Owned Public Space: The
New York City Experience.
New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 2000.
6 Lefaivre, L.; de Roode,
I.; Fuchs, R. H.. Aldo van
Eyck: The playgrounds
and the city. Amsterdam:
Stedelijk Museum, 2002.

23
Cultural density
Self-repair
Gas barrier
Smart car
Creativity
Sensorial qualities
E-bike
Systemic design
Digital signage
Interaction design
Urban acupuncture
Social innovation
Interaction
Self-cleaning
Interface
Mutant intervention
Smart light
Mallification
Test intervention
Nanotechnology
Networking
Beat
Control system
Smart home
Wikicity
Smart city
Slow design
Soft approach
Architecture students who studied in Spain in the 1990s were taught by the
top active professionals of that time. They envisaged and built infrastructure
and basic facilities such as hospitals, libraries, sports centres, cultural centres,
auditoriums etc. The architectural production of that period is a dictionary of
sound architecture from which one can draw the discipline’s keys to successful
planning, designing and building from a wealth of superb examples. We studied
and breathed architecture, our references were always architectural in nature
and our lives were circumscribed to circles of architects.
Soon thereafter, greater contact with a society that was undergoing transfor-
mation at breakneck pace put an end to the monolithic consensus surrounding
the discipline and its limits started getting blurrier. Today, we cannot fathom
talking about cities without the input of other professionals, such as engineers,
sociologists, economists, geographers etc., sharing views and work tools in a
collective conversation that uses cities – living, mutant, unencompassable and
inherently complex organisms – as their game board.
Real-time connectivity, ubiquity and unlimited access to huge flows of in-
formation and knowledge have all changed the rules of the game. Information
is infinitely more accessible than ever before, but it also mutates more rapidly,
becoming obsolete almost instantly.
Currently, the office is our home; computers are the work tool par excellence;
and mobile phones are external prostheses of our brains or the gateway to our
most public profile. The boundaries between our public and private lives are
dissolving. Citizens are shifting away from being consumers towards becoming
prosumers, producing ideas, knowledge, information and content. The bound-
Augmented reality
Social software
Self-organisation
Open source
Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo are founding partners of
ecosistema urbano, founded in 2000. ecosistema urbano is
an innovative agency focused on understanding the city as
a complex phenomenon, from a unique vantage point taking
into account architecture, urban planning, engineering and
sociology. The agency has also created a communication
platform that leverages new communication technologies
to develop social networks and manage online channels
focused on the subject of creative urban sustainability.
ecosistema urbano has received many international awards.
(www.ecosistemaurbano.org).
Open source urban planning
for augmented citizens
Open source urban planning has to be understood
not as focusing on physical aspects of cities, but as
approaching their transformation by understanding
the behaviours and the social processes of the
citizens and exploring alternatives to reconciliate
them with physical realities designed in response to
former social structures and ways of life.
“The direct benefits of
incorporating citizens into
the creative process include
potentially better results,
facilitated development, wider
intervention acceptance and
the creation of a sense of
community”
Belinda Tato José Luis Vallejo

2524
José Luis Vallejo, Belinda Tato Open source urban planning for augmented citizens
According to Juan Freire, the [physical] urban public space crisis is also due
to the lack of open designs that are truly able to capture the interest1 of citizens.
He has successfully introduced into the debate concepts such as “hybrid spaces”,
referring both to opportunities created by physical/digital hybridisation in pub-
lic spaces, as well as to “augmented” urban experiences created by superimpos-
ing virtual information over existing physical information. “Augmented reality”
is defined in Wikipedia as a direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world
environment whose elements are combined with virtual elements to create a
mixed reality in real time.
Experimenting platforms
Elinor Ostrom, Economics Nobel Prize winner in 2009, has devoted years to
studying self-organisational economic models to prove that commons (i.e. re-
sources that are owned in common or shared among communities) can be ef-
fectively managed by independent groups of people, without the participation
of hierarchical government agencies. Her work demonstrates how humans in-
teract to maintain existing common resource production levels in the long term.
Compared to the traditional view of economists who believe that maintaining
such resources is only possible through government intervention or individual
private interests, Ostrom asserts that commons users develop sophisticated de-
cision-making mechanisms and rules to handle conflicts of interest, with results
that are not only positive, but usually better than those attained under tradi-
tional economic models.
In the urban scenario, contemporary initiatives incorporating citizens as
active agents have shifted away from the conventional paradigm of citizens
as finished product customers-spectators-receivers, to turn them into citizens-
agents-producers within open processes, thereby creating augmented spaces that
may be modified according to user needs (understanding the city and its public
spaces as sensitive areas under permanent transformation, capable of adapting
over time to address different demands, and defining spaces as support plat-
forms for interaction and experimentation). Vast experience in networking and
co-working can be used as a point of reference to design new models for the col-
lective creation of public spaces and cities. The direct benefits of incorporating
citizens into the creative process include potentially better results, facilitated
development, wider intervention acceptance and the creation of a sense of com-
munity.
aries between our personal and professional lives are starting to blend together
and this rapid evolution is taking us to imagine and experience spaces and cities
in a whole new different way. We have become receivers and emitters of a con-
tinuous flow of information that we need to redirect, administrate, assimilate
or simply discard.
But, apart from their digital lives, humans are still social beings on an undy-
ing quest for interaction with other people to exchange information, knowledge
or direct sensory experiences. “The Cloud” provide appropriate conditions for
part of this exchange, but the physical reality remains the irreplaceable stage
where most of our lives unfold.
Parallel to this on-going revolution, city planning continues to be a languid,
bureaucratic procedure that is completely detached from the dynamic pace of
our social processes. The amendment of regulatory and legislative frameworks
is such a slow process that finalised reforms are generally out of synch with
initial demands. New rules, which are systematically born obsolete, generally re-
quire further amendment, creating a never-ending loop of processing and public
management procedures.
Slow and tortuous official urban planning processes focusing on the design
and physical transformation of our environment (infrastructure, buildings,
materials, geometry etc.) have ended up creating a dominant
discipline that simplifies urban reality, ignoring its social as-
pects and creating isolated situations instead of processes, re-
lationships, storylines, links and interactions among all of its
composing elements. The increasing complexity of urban envi-
ronments exponentially multiplies the number of synergies and
the likelihood of contact between all elements, thus generating
healthier and more creative urban environments.
Emerging public spaces
At present, the Internet is undoubtedly the “place” where collective creation and
self-organisation models are being carried out with the greatest success. Internet
boosted the social identity and people collective interests, turning them into a
strong influential power within the urban world.
In contrast, an ever-growing excess of rules and restrictions to control and
direct urban spaces have made their use progressively less spontaneous and cre-
ative. The Internet allows and encourages interaction among people, whereas the
design of many physical spaces negates it.
The Internet seems to provide an alternative, non-traditional space for so-
cial relations. This can be seen either as a problem, if viewed as encouraging
the gradual “emptying” of public spaces, or much to the contrary, it can be en-
visaged as an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen local social relations by
creating the necessary conditions to activate and invigorate traditional public
spaces.
“Internet boosted the
social identity and people
collective interests,
turning them into a
strong influential power
within the urban world”
1 “Sentient City: Juan
Freire – Espacios Públicos
Híbridos”. Ecosistema
Urbano [blog]. 2009.
[Consultation: October
13, 2012]. Available at:
http://ecosistemaurbano.
org/castellano/sentient-
city-juan-freire-espacios-
publicos-hibridos/

2726
Open source urban planning for augmented citizens
Open source urban planning is understood as that which, rather than focus-
ing on the physical aspects of cities, approaches their transformation by under-
standing the behaviours and social processes of their people, exploring alterna-
tives for our reconciliation with physical realities designed in response to former
social structures and ways of life. It includes isolated or collective initiatives
capable of generating immediate transformations; spontaneous mutations or
metamorphoses that are unpredictable or difficult to quantify; actions that are
either purposely intended to produce specific changes or that may have unfore-
seeable outcomes, based on operations planned with a certain degree of freedom.
As alternatives to traditional urban space transformation models, below is a
selection of experiences that propose uses, processes or results that disrupt nor-
mal hierarchical dynamics and open up infinitely more creative and stimulating
dimensions.
Participation
OneThousandSquare (onethousandsquare.org) is the winning project in an ar-
tistic intervention competition organised by the City of Hamar (Norway) in
Stortorget Square, the city’s main public space. This project proposes an alterna-
tive solution to the outlined programme in competition’s terms and conditions,
defining a participatory design process for the new square. The artistic interven-
tion’s budget was initially allocated to a process lasting several months, which
included an intense programme of events, workshops and the construction of 1:1
scale prototypes of ideas brainstormed during creative sessions.
OneThousandSquare drives collective reflection on public spaces by strength-
ening social relations, based on the assumption that beyond their physical defi-
nition, to build public spaces is to build communities around them.
OneThousandSquare is a project open to local interaction (citizens of Hamar)
that also promotes global participation (other citizens via the Internet).
In 2005, the German city of Magdeburg implemented the “City on Trial”
strategy, aiming to resume efforts to recover an urban centre located within
a post-industrial district with high rates of unemployment, population aban-
donment, empty buildings and abandoned lots. This experiment started out by
reinforcing social ties and creating new ones before any physical changes were
made to urban reality. The Open Air Library project was an initiative that began
with the implementation of a participatory process to design a “social sculpture”
that would later evolve into an open air public reading space.
More than 30,000 books donated by citizens were collected at successive
theme festivals and events and 1:1 scale prototypes of the most popular designs
were built using empty beer cartons. The place soon became popularly known
as the Bookmark, until the Open Air Library project was inaugurated in 2009,
embodying the aspirations of citizens. The public square, along with all other
spaces in this city, now operate as open reading hall.
i ecosistema urbano, OneThousandSquare, 2011
“This project proposes
an alternative
solution to the
outlined programme
in competition’s
terms and conditions,
defining a participatory
design process for the
new square”

2928
Self-organisation
The former Tobacco Factory of Madrid (Tabacal-
era) in the Madrilenian district of Lavapiés has
been designated to become the future National
Visual Arts Centre. Although further efforts for
its development are currently at a standstill due
to the economic crisis, the Ministry of Culture au-
thorised the use of part of the building to establish
a self-managed social centre during this “waiting”
period. In less than a year, since it opened to the
public in June 2010, Tabacalera (latabacalera.net)
has become a cultural benchmark, not only for the
surrounding neighbourhoods, but for the entire
city of Madrid. The creative philosophy of Taba-
calera provides for the establishment of work and
information spaces that, rather than being lent out
to individuals (studios, exhibits etc.), are granted
to art practices and disciplines as a whole (work-
shops, clinics). Tabacalera’s work, time and space
distribution structure aims to provide a common
ground where the most advanced art practices can share work and discussion
spaces with political and social practices in Lavapiés and the rest of Madrid.
Tabacalera is betting on a collaborative, open source production model, under-
standing culture as an active, vital process intertwined with its environment.
According to the “rules” of this space, all activities are carried out and provided
at no cost and all production is developed under “free licensing” schemes.
The Estaesunaplaza (estaesunaplaza.blogspot.com) project emerged from a
workshop where students and young professionals turned a vacant lot (C/ Doc-
tor Fourquet no. 24) that had been abandoned for over 30 years, into a public
space for the Madrid town of Lavapiés. Aiming to create
a gathering space in a densely populated neighbourhood
sorely lacking in facilities, this group was assigned the
right of use of this lot after painstakingly long negotia-
tions with the Madrid City Council. The project is now
actively under way, promoting a self‑management model
whereby the entire space is made available to everyone,
activities are free and participants donate their time to
help keep it going.
Activism
Whether through action or omission, every citizen initiative has political sig-
nificance. In the words of geographer and social theorist David Harvey, we need
to get accustomed to continuous, consensus-building conflict in order to gener-
ate healthy urban environments2. Therefore, activist initiatives that create the
proper climate for debate by activating citizens should be viewed as positive.
Mike Styczynski, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD),
created Actual Air – a hybrid measuring instrument/database/social network
project. Detecting high asthma incidence in one of Boston’s towns, he set out to
make an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, including its causes and con-
sequences. He selected a commonplace item to this city – a bicycle – to view,
record and report on the town’s alarmingly high pollution levels. Actual Air is
a sensing device that can easily be attached to any bicycle wheel to monitor air
quality. A LED pilot light changes colour depending on the level of pollution.
Real-time data collected is sent to a Web-based database, mapping urban pollu-
tion levels and yielding a clear picture of a problem that had so far been ignored.
Such data, now accessible, is an instrument at the service of the community that
should help stir up discussion.
In Mexico City – one of the most polluted cities in the world –, the group
Make your city collective designed and painted its own so-called guerrilla bike
lane. This initiative was triggered by the passivity of city government, which had
promised to build 300 kilometres of bike lanes by the end of 2012, showing only
a minimal percentage of completion in 2011. The official statement explained
that non-compliance by the government was due to insufficient funds. In a
single night, however, an active group of 80 people on a tight budget of merely
1,000 dollars, completed 5 kilometres of the Wikicarril, so termed because of its
open and participatory nature.
t Estaesunaplaza, Madrid, 2011
i Mike Styczynski, Actual Air, 2010
2 Harvey D. Urbanismo
y desigualdad social.
Madrid: Siglo veintiuno de
España Editores, 1977.
Harvey D., Paris, Capital
of Modernity. New York:
Routledge, 2003.
i Tabacalera, Madrid, 2010

3130
by-laws of the future users association. At present, this initiative is managed by
the members of this association, expressly created for such purpose.
Gastronomy
Dining out in urban spaces can have countless cultural and social meanings.
Beyond its strictly nutritional aspects, the collective practice of dining out can
serve as an extraordinary tool for community mobilisation.
In her project called Knock for neighbours (knockforneighbors.com), Molly
Turner, a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, developed a digital
interface to help connect tourists with locals who are willing to open the doors
to their homes and share their own food and table. Contrasting with predictable
dining experiences for tourists, Knock for neighbours gives people the chance to
meet and bond with other people from distant urban environments, ensuring a
unique gastronomic and sociological experience. The database allows users to
enter selection criteria such as profession, culture, type of cuisine etc.
In its COMA (eat in English) project, the Mexican group Torolab (torolab.
org) explores the physiological changes that people experience over time in
their day-to-day relationship with food and how this
affects their social behaviour. This experience culmi-
nated with the creation of a new food product: a type
of bread that contains all the nutrients missing in the
typical Mexican diet, according to the Mexican nation-
al health census.
Mobility
Currently one of the major challenges in terms of en-
ergy consumption, pollution and physical urban space
occupancy, the choice of urban mobility policies has a huge impact on city de-
sign and operation. In many cases, these policies are so decisive that they can
radically transform the social habits of citizens.
Bring buddy is a project developed by students of the School of Design Think-
ing in Potsdam, in co-operation with the DHL Innovation Centre. This project
aims to find new formulas for more efficient transport of goods within urban
centres with rising energy costs, increased CO2 emissions and restricted vehicle
access. Bring buddy is a social web that analyses the daily routes of people to
build a distribution network based on such routes. This system is inspired on
food delivery networks in certain Asian cities, where thousands of meals are de-
livered every day through self-organised systems. Still in its experimental stage,
this project includes GPS and mobile phone use, creating an exchange network
that is connected to a transport network. Last but not least, Bring buddy is an
altruistic network of anonymous citizens working together to help out other
fellow citizens.
En tu coche o en el mío (entucocheoenelmio.es.tl) (In your car or mine in
English), is an initiative created by a group of students from the School of Ar-
Temporality
As part of a one-night arts and culture festival (La noche en blanco) held in Sep-
tember 2010, an ephemeral recreational facility – Isla Ciudad – was set up in a
vacant lot in the centre of Madrid. This empty urban space had been created by
the recent demolition of a former sports centre, where the new planned project
had been put on hold as a result of the economic crisis. The synergies created
around the Isla Ciudad project triggered a vindicatory process that resulted in
the Elcampodelacebada (elcampodecebada.org / The barley field in English) proj-
ect – a citizen initiative to convert this empty space into a temporary public
space where cultural, social, sports and other activities could be organised. In
February 2011, the Madrid City Council signed a temporary assignment agree-
ment, marking the onset of this promising project.
Hortas na cidade dos barrios (hortasnacidade.wordpress.com) is an initia-
tive that began in 2009 for purposes of establishing networks between the city
and the countryside through the temporary implementation and recovery of or-
chards in abandoned plots outside of Corunna. The team that designed this pro-
posal (desescribir.com) created mechanisms to establish an autonomous process
that can be managed by its participants in the long term and does not depend on
oversight by any specific agents (designers, managers etc.). This project was set
into motion by contacting the owners to reach agreements on the assignment of
abandoned plots, as well as with public presentations of the initiative to orchard
owners, interested individuals and other potential users. A board was later cre-
ated, which would be responsible for drafting orchard use regulations and the
i eXYZt. Isla Ciudad (City IsLand), 2010 “Bring buddy is a social
web developed by students
that analyses the daily
routes of people to build
a distribution network for
more efficient transport”

3332
Social software
Links are essential elements of Internet. Since their inception, we have associ-
ated Internet with “surfing” or moving from one page to another. Linking allows
us to discover new things and build new relationships. Rather than concentrat-
ing on a small number of nodes, links propose a new intellectual structure based
on networking systems and multi-point relationships. With an Internet-like
structure, the Critical City (criticalcity.org) project summarises these concepts,
encouraging entertaining dynamics for social interaction aimed at helping us-
ers experience the city as a place of opportunity. This project is a local social
network where users can propose urban actions, meet their neighbours and help
improve their surroundings, thus driving the creation of contact networks be-
tween people living in the same neighbourhood. The Peuplade network (peup-
lade.fr) allows same-street or same‑neighbourhood residents to organise local
festivals to get to know one another and build relationships with new acquain-
tances. Peuplade (tribe in English) offers added support to continue to build on
new friendships by allowing people to trade favours and items.
What if cities (whatif.es) is a Web tool that modernises the concept of citi-
zen participation with the use of the Internet, incorporating new participants
that had so far been absent from traditional participatory dynamics. This tool
explores new formats that enable communication and
interaction among the agents involved in the process
of creating a city. Using a simple interface, citizens
can access this webpage to add comments, submit new
ideas for their street, neighbourhood or city or upload
photos and videos. All content is geo-referenced and
connected to major social networks, producing real-
time maps of the citizens’ wishes and needs.
A Whatif mobile application to allow anyone, any-
where, to access the platform and enter content, is cur-
rently under development. Whatif is available under
Creative Commons licensing for any city around the
world to download, install and customise for its own use.
chitecture in Seville, that invites Sevillians to carpool for their daily commutes
to and from the city. The goal is clear: to reduce the number of vehicles, as well
as energy consumption and pollution levels.
Recreation
Setting up a unique ephemeral element or reinterpreting an everyday item in a
different context can trigger unusual, surprising and playful urban experiences.
Play Me, I’m Yours (streetpianos.com) is a set-up by artist Luke Jerram that
has been travelling across many cities around the globe since 2008. A piano
standing smack in the middle of a public space for everyone to play and enjoy,
acts as the catalyst for a wide range of impromptu dynamics in public space use.
The piano and its surroundings temporarily become places for social exchange
and interaction. Each city creates a website to provide
access to all the material generated during the experi-
ence, including videos, photos and stories. The Web then
becomes the project’s legacy, as well as the connecting
link between the pianos and communities involved.
The British group What if (what-if.info) implement-
ed the Sit in project as a formula to revitalise a down-
town neighbourhood that had number of abandoned
plots due to the industrial economic downfall. Sit in – a
small-scale project that encourages residents to donate
benches or chairs to the city – has fully transformed
public spaces by generating new positive dynamics and
injecting life into them.
Transparency/Mapping
New technologies have enabled the routine collection
and updating of geo-referenced data. With the contribu-
tion of thousands of individuals, many Web platforms
are currently able to provide us with otherwise unavail-
able maps using real-time data. As problems and oppor-
tunities are now more visible and apparent, organising groups of people to help
solve them has also become an easier task.
Implemented in New York City, the garbagescout.com project consists of a
number of geo-referenced photos of potentially reusable items that have been
thrown out as garbage along public roads. These photos are taken by anonymous
New Yorkers and later displayed on a city map. Any users interested in any of
the photographed items can easily find their location and pick them up before
they are taken away by the city’s trash collection service.
Bristol Food for Free is a Web-based database that provides information on
edible plants in the city of Bristol. The webpage generates maps for all of the 113
species identified and also shows new potential planting sites, allowing novice
gatherers to find fresh fruits and vegetables quickly and safely.
i Ecosistemaurbano, What if cities (whatif.es), 2010
i Play Me, I’m Yours., 2008

35
Cultural density
Self-organisation
Self-repair
Gas barrier
Smart car
Open source
Creativity
Sensorial qualities
E-bike
Systemic design
Interaction design
Urban acupuncture
Social innovation
Self-cleaning
Interface
Mutant intervention
Test intervention
Nanotechnology
Networking
Augmented reality
Beat
Control system
Smart home
Social software
Wikicity
Slow design
Soft approach
billboards hanging from buildings, LCD moni-
tors assembled in media walls, 3D projections onto
buildings, light façades, interactive points of infor-
mation, digital kiosks, educational or commercial
installations. The list goes on, and represents the
visual access to the smart city2.
All these visual outputs are already networked
and will soon be interconnected in some way. Cur-
rently, the main connections are those created by
users. Users connect different smart places, initially
with their own eyes, but also with their own digital
extensions. Smart phones run geo-referenced appli-
cations, tablet devices show virtual content through
augmented reality applications. As well as this, fu-
turistic visors3 or readily available glasses4 can also
harness an enhanced smart city experience.
The idea is simple: over the past decade, digital
technologies have begun to blanket our cities,
forming the backbone of a large, intelligent in-
frastructure. As such, bits and atoms are con-
verging, and this process is making our built
environment increasingly responsive and smart.
Forget buildings as machines to live in, as Cor-
bu famously put it. Think instead of computers
in open air.1
carlo ratti
Smart lights for smart cities
Computers in open air need displays, i.e. smart plac-
es for visualizing dynamic communications. Those
smart places are spreading throughout towns in
various forms. They may be huge advertising LED
Interaction
Mallification
Smart light
Smart city
Digital signage
Giovanni Flore is currently Project Manager and researcher for
Fabrica projects in the field of retail and customer experience.
He has acquired a sound professional background in Marketing
and Communications, working in consulting firms and creative
agencies. He also investigates and writes about how social
sciences interact with marketing strategies, and how the
marketing mix can integrate new ways of relating to users.
Alfio Pozzoni is currently Director for Innovation and Research
at Fabrica as well as project leader and creative director for
the Benetton Live Windows project
(http://www.livewindow.it/). He works at the intersection of
design, marketing and technology and their application in
business projects as well as in cultural initiatives.
His professional background is mainly in fashion photography
and film-making for a number of top international magazines
and brands.
Smart cities, smart lights.
Digital signage and
the city experience
This article is about the experience of light in the smart and
digital city or, in other words, the existing and widening
use of visual digital signage in the urban environment,
open air and in public places. This research focuses on
where in towns this digital “contamination” is more visible
and accessible, i.e. in shopping districts.
“Consider the emerging
trend of the “mallification”
of urban high streets,
where citizen experience is
essentially aligned to the
customer experience”
1 Ratti, C. Architecture that senses and responds
[online]. Long Beach, Calif.: TED Congress, March 2011.
[Consultation: June 11, 2012]. Available at: http://www.ted.
com/talks/carlo_ratti_architecture_that_senses_and_
responds.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Ratti
2 “Smartness is not just about efficiency (e.g. using less
power) but crucially also smartness about creating a
flexible system that can dynamically adjust to changes,
one that responds to unpredictable phenomena in a
way that is not planned, and that harnesses the creative
capacity of the inhabitants”. Haque, U. “Surely there’s a
smarter approach to smart cities?”. Wired [online]. April 17,
2012. [Consultation: June 11, 2012]. Available at:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-04/17/
potential-of-smarter-cities-beyond-ibm-and-cisco
3 “Visors could be the key to the future of not just gaming,
but shopping, socializing, and managing your emails.
But don’t pronounce your current LED Tv dead just
yet: Gaikai’s David Perry sees a strong future for more
traditional displays, albeit with a next-gen twist. (…) They
will be multi-channel stereoscopic 4K video (4,096 pixels
wide)”, that will allow users to have a multi-angle vision
and to manage this with gestures. “Future Tech”, Edge
Magazine, No. 238, March 2012, p. 90-92.
4 “Project Glass is a research and development program
p
Giovanni Flore Alfio Pozzoni

3736
by Google to develop an augmented realityhead-
mounted display (HMD).The intended purpose of Project
Glass products would be the hands-free displaying of
information currently available to most smartphone users
and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural
language voice commands, in a manner similar to the
iPhonefeature Siri. The operating system software used in
the glasses will be Google’s Android.” Project Glass. In:
Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia [Wiki at Internet].
St. Petersburg (FL): Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2001.
[Consultation: June 11, 2012]. Available at: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Glass
5 This compression of single personalities by consumerism is
impressively described by Zygmut Bauman’s paradigm of
the liquid society. But the most fashionable, and misused,
mantra is that of the “society of the spectacle”, defined by
Guy Debord in 1973 in his book “La Société du Spectacle”,
a radical attack on contemporary society, in which, in
Debord’s words, “being had declined into a state of having,
and having simply means appearing”. “The Spectacle is
not a collection of images, but the social relation between
people mediated by images”. Debord, G. The Society of
the Spectacle. [Trans. by Donald Nicholson-Smith]. New
York: Zone Books, 1994, p. 4.
6 The European Union has set a plan to ban the sale of bulb
lamps by 2012.
“This density of businesses
transforms the street into a
communications battlefield,
with brands striving to attract
people’s attention”
Giovanni Flore, Alfio Pozzoni Smart cities, smart lights
7 This shift will generate major savings in power
consumption, while providing more light. LED lights have
built a reputation of being more sustainable and effective
and for this reason, they are vital to the green initiatives of
many local authorities. Taiwanese authorities launched the
2012 plan for 250,000 LED lights to be installed in place of
older mercury lamps. This conversion to LED completes
the whole country’s shift to LED and it is supposed to save
143 kWh and the corresponding 87,500 tons of carbon
dioxide. One consequence of the growing efficiency of
lighting technology, however, is that we save power but we
never compromise light output. There is always more light
from less power.
8 Klooster, T. [ed.]. Smart surfaces. Basel: Birkhauser, 2012,
p. 101.
9 This is happening at a different pace in all countries.
Digital-out-of-home is growing faster in the Far East than
in Europe. DOOH in China already represents 36% of the
overall OOH spending with a growth of 30% compared
to the previous year. In the US, it totals 19% of the overall
OOH, with a growth rate of 25% on the preceding year. In
the UK, it represents 12% of the overall OOH, with a growth
rate of 37% on the preceding year. In Italy and France, the
DOOH share is still small but it has doubled since 2010.
Source: “2011 Global digital-out-of-home handbook”. The
Kinetic Global Digital Handbook [online]. December 2011.
[Consultation: June 11, 2012]. Available at: http://kin.tc/
globaldigitalhandbook
10 Digital billboards offer much brighter output both at
day and night and are much more expensive than static
billboards, yet are far more profitable for advertisers.
11 “Digital billboards are a wonderful success story. In just
10 years, digital billboards have gone from introduction to
widespread acceptance by billboard operators, advertisers
and local zoning authority. There now are more than
2,500 digital billboards in the United States. That’s pretty
impressive for a product that’s disrupting a 150-year-old
industry.
Part of the reason for this growth is the recession. Sounds
counterintuitive, but billboard operators have seen local
ad dollars dry up during the recession, and many turned
to digital to stem the downturn in sales. One operator
told me that although digital makes up just 4 percent
of his inventory, it accounts for nearly 50 percent of his
revenue!”
Friskney, D. “Trends point to continued growth for digital
billboards”. Digitalsignagetoday.com [online]. November
2011. [Consultation: June 11, 2012]. Available at:
http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/blog/6891/Trends-
point-to-continued-growth-for-digital-billboards?rc_
id=157
will not be completed anytime soon, if at all, but,
no doubt, it will ultimately prevail. There is a big
argument around the density and impact of digital
billboards. Media owners and local authorities usu-
ally agree to some reduction of static billboards to
install new digital ones in return10. In the United
States, several cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Atlanta, Houston and many more) have banned
them from roadways, due to the traffic safety issue,
while many others have established a moratorium
on new installations. Traffic safety seems to drive
the trend for regulation in the States, whereas local
authorities in Europe are more concerned with the
effect they have on individuals.
LED-based billboards, however, are extremely
bright compared to traditional billboards. Moreover,
the whole LED signage unit needs a cooling system
and operates 24/7, including during seasonal peak-
times when energy is more expensive. It is certain
that the overall energy consumption of digital bill-
boards exceeds that of static signage and this makes
the trade-off between LEDs and bulbs less relevant,
compared to the return on investment11.
complete the change from mercury bulbs to the
more efficient and sustainable LEDs7. This diversity
of lighting also forms part of the identity of a town.
Today’s lighting technologies, in particular
LEDs, have facilitated new uses that weren’t even
dreamed of, just a few short years ago. Light has be-
come much more dynamic and communicative:
The advantages offered by these new deve-
lopments, such as continuously variable ad-
justment of the intensity of illumination and its
color, allow light to be used to create spectacu-
lar effects, motivating designers and planners
to use lighting equipment in a more generous
manner, that also consumes more energy. The
emotional and associative potential of specta-
cular lighting installations as a communicative
medium is often underestimated.8
LED billboards
Traditional billboards on roads, rooftops, and build-
ing façades are changing into digital billboards,
mainly employing LED technologies9. Consider-
ing the cost of set-up and operation, this change
outdoor communication and also in the urban vi-
sual experience.
From electric towns to digital cities
Our towns, especially the central shopping districts,
are experiencing a significant change in lighting
and visual impact. In just a few years, the lighting
aspect of most towns has shifted from electric to
electronic.
We can still experience a number of traditional
lighting techniques, such as incandescent bulbs and
neon tubes, but they will soon become quite rare6.
For instance, souvenir and tourist stores in places
like La Rambla, Barcelona, or opposite the Colosseo
in Rome, frame their merchandise with uncovered
neon tubes that light up their window displays, a
hard experience for the user’s retina. The Benetton
store in Paris, on the other hand, actually hits pe-
destrians with spotlight bulbs that make looking
at the store window an uncomfortable experience.
Poor, excessive, or badly-managed lighting has af-
fected the average city experience since the begin-
ning of the electric age. Public and road lighting
Carlo Ratti envisions this scenario of the digiti-
sation of towns as something that is already in prog-
ress, with digital signage playing a major role.
This article is about the experience of light in the
smart and digital city – or, in other words, the exist-
ing and widening use of visual digital signage in the
urban environment, open air and public places. This
research has focused on where in towns this digital
“contamination” is more visible and accessible, i.e. in
shopping districts. We use the term “digital signage”
in a wider sense, beyond the simple concepts of out-
door billboards for commercial or information pur-
poses. We also include the experience of digital light
and dynamic images displayed outdoors as a media
that is evolving along with the technology itself.
This experience is conditioned by environmental
factors, technology choices, design culture, business
and, not least, local regulations. This article is also
about current trends in digital experience design in
the real world, as well as its future scenarios.
Consider the emerging trend of the “mallifica-
tion” of urban high streets, where commercial den-
sity is as high as in a shopping mall and where citi-
zen experience is essentially aligned to the customer
experience5. This density of businesses transforms
the street into a communications battlefield, with
brands striving to attract people’s attention. Stores
are communicating more than ever, through win-
dows fitted with digital lights and with various tech-
nologies out on the street. This is what makes the
shopping district a “laboratory” for observing and
analyzing the technological weapons with which
brands are fighting. High streets are urban transfor-
mation labs, where brands dictate trends in digital

3938
Las Vegas, at the entrance to the Donna Karan New
York store, a 6x3m LED billboard displays a live
stream of Manhattan, taken from above. The whole
media-wall is covered with a thin film that blurs its
brightness, taking advantage of the pixelated reso-
lution of the cityscape. This rarefied experience is
in keeping with the cool and chic brand imagery.
The light emitted from the LED media-wall varies
in softness and warmth dependent on the displayed
content.
Hollister is a teen-oriented brand from Aber-
crombie and Fitch. It has fitted its store on 5th Av-
enue, New York, with 180 46” LCD monitors. These
are installed in different combinations; the largest
one is outdoors, with more than 100 monitors dis-
playing a live feed from a Southern Californian bay;
a haven for surfers and their followers. On the side-
walk, below the media wall, a flat fountain recalls
the sensorial realm of sea water. The store becomes
a metaphorical sea-light that attracts people into its
bay and welcomes them into a “virtual” surfers vil-
lage. The outcome is impressive, but the whole con-
cept seems somehow under-used. The poor resolu-
tion displayed on such a vast surface undermines
the whole experience.
As far as content design is concerned, the most
significant revolution has been in the LED’s ability
to provide both lighting design and manageability,
as well as the way this ability can influence the expe-
rience of light and its effects on individuals13.
On the other hand, seamless monitors can be as-
sembled in various multiples to cover a large surface
and can display all kinds of content in higher reso-
“The impact of digital
signage on the city
experience depends on two
key factors: size, for visual
experience, and concept, for
social experience”
12 The expertise of window decorators is valuable and
cannot be underestimated. But creative and impactful
window decoration is very expensive, and static.
13 Research results have shown that, in addition to the
receptors responsible for vision (rods and cones), there
are also biologically active receptors in our eyes. These
influence the production of the hormones melatonin and
cortisol. Bommel, W.J.M. van; Beld, G.J. van den; Ooyen,
M.H.F. van. Industrial lighting and productivity. Eindhoven:
Philips Lighting, 2001, p. 14-15.
LEDs or Monitors?
Retail brands are fitting many stores with on-
window media walls. Why? It is obvious that tra-
ditional store windows belong to the same age of
static outdoor communication: they may cost less
in the short-term but can hardly produce a remark-
able outcome12. Brands need not only to make their
communication more visible on the street, they also
need to generate attention and encourage participa-
tion from people where they are ready for spending
(in the shopping district) – they need to link both
store and shoppers. Traditional store windows can
be turned into media walls that are placed behind
the window or just by the store entrance.
Stores have two main visual and technological
options: covering a surface with LED tiles or posi-
tioning high-resolution monitors.
LED walls are made of lighted dots which form
a pattern at a certain distance, which technological
improvements are dramatically reducing; monitors
have different dimensions and can be assembled
seamlessly, providing higher resolution both from a
distance and close-up. The main difference between
these two technologies is in the resolution of the im-
age and, consequently, the content design potential.
Generally speaking, LEDs have a lower resolu-
tion that is better suited to outdoor use, and moni-
tors work better indoors. We do have reverse trends
for both, however: LEDs are being deployed inside
buildings, also in the form of media walls, while
monitors assembled in the same shape are popping
up outdoors, usually encased in totems or kiosks
that are water and temperature proof.
The following are examples of those trends and
the different impact for which they are designed. In
lution. This enhanced quality demands a content
strategy able to interplay both size and brightness,
as well as design. The experience they create is vi-
sually neat and can be further enriched with high
quality visual effects.
The choice of one option over another depends
on many factors. Firstly: design. If the brands need
nuances of light, fine details, a wider and vivid
palette of colors, or extra definition, the outcome
is certain: only monitors can fulfil these require-
ments. On the other hand, a more abstract or less
defined design can take advantage of the many oth-
er strengths of the LED.
Other influencing factors for choosing one op-
tion or the other are: the physical characteristics of
the location, how the installation fits in with exist-
ing architecture, and the kind of visual experience
the brand wants to deliver to the user.
A misuse of LEDs
LEDs give the greatest impact over a larger distance.
Continuous development in this technology has
increased the number of light spots per cm2 and,
consequently, the resolution. This improvement in
image resolution also results in greater brightness,
which makes the close-up usability of the media
somewhat challenging.
The use of LED walls on premises and close-up
to the viewer may be disturbing and also represents
a source of light pollution.
Something similar happens in a Desigual store.
This brand has adopted LEDs for displaying its vi-
sual brand identity both inside and outdoors. Vari-
ous sizes of LED panels are attached to the store
windows or close to the entrance, in a position that
can be easily enjoyed from outside. The semi-dark
in-store lighting design emphasizes the impact of
the media wall, which is very bright and displays a
loop of dynamic content. The outcome is an excess
of light emanating from the media wall.
LEDs have many advantages, such as their ex-
treme modularity and flexibility in covering various
surfaces. These strengths are weakened, however, by
the excessive light output for close-up vision. This
type of lighting is, therefore, more enjoyable viewed
from a distance than close-up.
Impact on city experience
The digital signage experience presents a multitude
of attributes for the city experience as a whole. The
experience results from the combination of applied
technologies, architectural integration, content de-
sign and its ability to be interactive.
The impact of digital signage on the city expe-
rience depends on two key factors: size, for visual
experience, and concept, for social experience.
Size does matter
Size must be considered in relation to the viewer. In
any case, it is only when we are physically close to
the media that we can produce something like an
immersive impact and a more sensory (and not only
visual) experience. This may happen with media
walls deployed on the street, but not, however, with
billboards.
The scale of the media compared to that of the
viewer creates a discontinuity, where the viewer
can dwell and feel at ease, enjoying and sharing the
experience with others. The scale is key to both in-
dividual experience and mass visibility; the hyper-
scale creates a digital background where the viewer
experiences something completely different. This
creates an “event” in the viewer’s everyday city expe-
rience. At that moment, the viewer becomes a user.
A brief glimpse at different concepts and sizes of
street-experience may be useful to highlight the dif-
ferent approaches available.
In Times Square, New York, everything is cov-
ered in LEDs and all media run 24/7. The huge LED
billboard on top of the Forever21 store runs an in-
teractive application: an attractive young woman
literally picks people up from the Square below and
moves them somewhere else. This happens on the
billboard, thanks to an interactive application. The
image of the people is still small on the huge screen

4140
i “Live Window”. Benetton store, Piazza Duomo, Milan
areas and keeping the level of urban lights quite low
during night-time.
Many towns in Europe and the United States
are facing the spread of digital signage and lighting
technologies, often deployed without the appropri-
ate skills and expertise. There is an urgent need for
regulation, not only to protect the urban landscape,
but, more importantly, to safeguard the existing city
experiences that are also the result of lighting and
digital signage design. There is huge scope for urban
planners, architects, designers and retailers to im-
prove the quality of the experience for users16.
only a few years ago. This has an impact on the
whole experience of the city by its users14.
The issue of the spread of lighting and of the im-
pact of light pollution in towns has been addressed
in the UK. A government paper states the impor-
tance for towns to set a lighting master plan.15
The focus is on prioritizing the visual experience
of the city for the pedestrian, improving the variety
and quality of the lighted scene, to a level above and
beyond base lighting. Such plans have been imple-
mented in a number of cities throughout the UK, in-
cluding Edinburgh, Leeds, Coventry, Liverpool and
Belfast. One main outcome has been the limiting of
lighting and digital signage installations to specific
tors, results in an immersive feeling, designing an
environment that is worth enjoying for a while or
recording in some way.
User generated content
The concept, in all of the above cases, is focused on
the user’s image. It also aims to make the user the
content provider. He/she becomes the branded con-
tent itself, as well at its distributor, disseminating
the content through his/her social channel of choice.
It reveals the individual’s desire for video protago-
nism, for being displayed and seen by a wider audi-
ence. This demand for public visibility conditions
everybody’s behavior, with teenagers and “digital
natives” in first place. This kind of experience re-
connects them to their personal digital realm. A
hyper-scaled portrait of the user being displayed in
a public area is not only a live experience, but also
digital content worthy of distribution via the Inter-
net. This makes the experience lifecycle longer and
reinforces the branded message.
Moreover, customers get a reward in terms of
relevance, i.e. their own relevance. Having the cus-
tomer at the center of the content production pro-
cess causes big changes in advertising strategy, forc-
ing brands to create fewer monologues and more
dialogues; in attention strategy, creating highly per-
ceived brand experiences; in project sustainability,
letting the users themselves provide constantly new
and fresh branded content. Such an experience also
reinforces the user’s awareness of his or her own
presence in the public space, the same space that has
been occupied by brands.
Towards urban lighting master plans
Many European towns are changing their night
lighting from the former pale yellow source, to a
brighter, and more neutral, white light. Lighting
point proliferation is regarded by the general public
as a sign of care and safety and is required by cam-
era control networks and security policies. Gener-
ally, urban areas are much brighter than they were
and hardly recognizable, but it also extremely rel-
evant because of its positioning in Times Square.
Many bystanders laugh, queues of users form, and
everybody take photographs of the spectacle.
In Piccadilly Circus in London, The McDonald’s
signage creates interest for both locals and visitors,
with some attempts at interactivity from its curved
LED billboard. A hat, an umbrella and bulldog paw
are displayed. The scale of the billboard allows pho-
tographs to be taken from many sides of the circus,
incorporating the user with one of those elements
as an amusing background. The brand however goes
along with the images. Poor design and poor experi-
ence. The media is under-used, but probably cannot
exceed a certain level of engagement due to its posi-
tion. It is embedded and assembled with many other
brands to form the well-known Piccadilly wall.
In Piazza Duomo, Milan, Benetton has devel-
oped a “Live Window”; a project for digital signage
that networks some of its flagship stores around
the world (Milan, Paris, London, Moscow, New
Delhi, Shanghai, Munich, Barcelona, and more).
Four large-sized LCD media walls (6 × 3 m) fit
wholly into the window space and play videos, ani-
mations and interactive applications. The user is
mirrored on the media, becoming the protagonist
of the street. His/her image is captured by an eye
(a camera or sensor) and re-displayed after pass-
ing through one of the many applications that add
funny effects or tricks to the image. This happens
on the street, on a hyper-scale, before a live audi-
ence. It triggers a bodily experience that resembles
a live show, with a stage, actors and audience. It ef-
fectively creates what usually happens with a street
artist performing his show and it takes places in
front of the store windows. An ephemeral and dy-
namic audience on the street, both gathering and
departing, shares this fun experience. Some move
their body and interact, while others simply gaze
directly or digitally (through their mobile devices)
at the show.
The size of the media-wall is essential to create
a richer experience and deeper visual impact. The
background, made of high-resolution LCD moni-
14 The International Dark-Sky Association (www.darksky.org)
is the global lobby that calls attention to the threats of
light pollution in urban environments as well as to wildlife.
15 “To design, in a co-ordinated manner, all lighting
within a delineated urban area, so as to avoid arbitrary
and uncoordinated lighting initiatives which waste
considerable sums of money and have very little net visual
effect on the night-time appearance of the relevant area.”
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Artificial
Light in the Environment. Kew, Richmond, Surrey: Office of
Public Sector Information, Information Policy Team, 2009.
16 “We have seen lighting designs that focus on specific
details of buildings, rather than blanket floodlighting,
which are both visually more effective and result in less
light pollution. There seems to be plenty of room for
improvement in monumental lighting schemes, which
need to be carefully planned and must take account of the
wishes of the local community and users.” Ibidem.

4342
—Social usefulness: when providing not only a
brand experience, but also widening its scope to
serve some social or local issue, positive perception
of a display installation is greatly increased.
—A new language: the digital signage experience
requires a new language and must allow dialogue
between brands and users. Simply displaying com-
mercial content that was specifically created for tra-
ditional channels produces weaker brand strategy
and irrelevant attention from users.
—Creative technologies: the integration of different
kinds of technologies such as sensors, transparent
films, OLED, nano-particles and micro-mechanics
will dramatically change the perspectives and capa-
bilities for communicating with an audience on the
move and in the public space. There will be greater
demands upon designers to integrate this ever-
changing landscape with the ever=increasing ex-
pectations of users, as well as the demand for brands
to create new and innovative digital experiences in
the real world.21
Ethics and aesthetics
Ethics and aesthetics should influence the spread
of smart displays in towns.
How? A sustainable and fair integration of digi-
tal signage into the perspective of the smart city
must take into consideration all of the following
drivers:
—The carbon foot-print20: this may become one of
the main areas of criticism against large lighting in-
stallations of many kinds. Power consumption and
sustainability are without doubt major issues in the
urban environment and cannot be underestimated.
Such issues can potentially drive negative public
opinion to favor a more traditional and less innova-
tive approach in urban light planning. Technology
vendors are quickly moving toward lower consump-
tion and more energy efficient equipment.
—The privacy issue: when fitted with cameras and
sensors for sensing a user’s interactions, or ever
more sophisticated face and demographic-tracking
technologies, branded installations must comply
with personal data protection laws and regulations.
—The over-abundance of moving images: designers
and marketers have to find the proper balance be-
tween user perceptions, population flows and urban
vocations. They must aim to save residential areas
from light profligacy and avoid confrontations be-
tween brands where lighting power exceeds concept
power.
dusk. The test lasted two whole days and produced a
quantity of data and visual research.
The outcome of the test was quite surprising.
The LCD media walls emitted less light than the
common light boxes or neon tubes that are usually
placed in window displays. The old-fashioned light-
ing was much more impactful (and annoying) than
the digital light. Not only that, but the luminance of
the media walls can also be easily adjusted by moni-
tor brightness control, or by putting polarized films
over the glass.
The store was allowed to restart the installation,
and the Municipality acknowledged that the whole
situation needed further expert appraisal.
Tomorrow is already today
In a short time, all the aforementioned issues may
be overtaken by a new technology that is already
conquering a huge market share: the OLED. The
Organic Light Emitting Diode allows the creation
of extremely thin films, with the capability of emit-
ting its own light. Among its features are higher en-
ergy efficiency and adaptability, with total material
recyclability and the same versatility that can be
achieved with paper, i.e. it is light, can be cut, folded
and installed extremely easily.
Technically speaking, the OLED works as a
monitor but converts light through particles and
not crystals. In contrast to the LED, it produces
light using organic elements, such as carbon and
oxygen. Once exhausted, they can be 100% recycled
without creating any polluting waste. They consume
far less power, the light does not dazzle, and they do
not require cooling systems.
Still quite expensive, they are currently used in
mobile phones displays, medical devices and cars,
however all vendors and researchers are in agree-
ment that their main use in the long run will be in
lighting systems.
Assessing lighting impact
On May 2011, the Barcelona municipality17 ordered
a number of stores in commercial high streets such
as La Rambla and Portal de l’Àngel to switch off
their digital signage installations. This request was
targeted at a number of stores with different win-
dow displays: LCD media walls, LED panels, and
single TV sets. The request was said to be the result
of complaints from citizens who had been disturbed
by the intensity of the light and the moving images.
It was also deemed that no official authorization had
been given to these installations, nor had such au-
thorization ever been requested by the stores them-
selves.
The Municipal Committee for Urban Land-
scape and Quality of Life approached the issue in
a straightforward way, i.e. “just switch it off now!”
Many stores did not comply, being aware that the
legal controversy was fully open in terms of rights
and regulations.
The writers of this article, being responsible for
the development of a digital signage installation
for the Benetton store windows in Portal de l’Àngel,
agreed to comply with this order. They did, however,
ask for a direct meeting with the Municipality, to
discuss its rationale.
The municipal officers agreed to the proposal to
set a test18 to assess the light impact from the two
(2,5 × 5 m) LCD monitor media walls installed in
the store windows19. Fabrica (Benetton’s commu-
nication research center and project owner) and
Elisava delivered a test in partnership to assess the
light impact over the course of the whole day, until
17 Ajuntament de Barcelona, Institut Municipal del Paisatge
Urbà i la Qualitat de la Vida – Commissiò Mixta Protecciò
del Paisatge Urbà.
18 The methodology adopted the same data sets and tools of
light engineers and designers. It measured the luminance
of the media wall, to quantify its surface brightness as the
amount of light an object gives off: with a professional
chromo-meter and in foot-candles. It measured also the
illuminance, which quantifies the amount of light that falls
onto an object: with a professional lux-meter, in foot-
candles.
19 The installation comprises fifty 46’ monitors, in total.
20 In terms of power consumption, it is absolutely true
that LEDs have more efficiency. Incandescent lamps
convert only around 2% of the electrical power into
lighting energy, whereas modern LEDs have an efficiency
of around 25%. They produce more light (lumens per
watt) than incandescent bulbs and their efficiency is not
affected by shape and size, unlike traditional light bulbs
and fluorescent tubes.
21 Technological innovations such as transparent films
fitted with LEDs, or ultra-light constructions, indicate the
much-needed development potential offered by hybrid
designs. The combination of complete transparency and
optimal visibility striven for with LEDs seems to have been
achieved for the first time by the integration of visible
conductors in the glass. Klooster, T. Op. Cit., p. 102.

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