URBAN KATTE
Urban furniture for people of the present day cities
In a world where everyone is caught up in their own private niches, urban spaces and by extension urban furniture has become obsolete in the Indian context.
As children, our hearts belonged to the areas of play and words such as ‘see-saw’, ‘merry-go-round’, ‘hopscotch’ among many others. This design intends to bring back the lost joys of childhood through urban furniture-scapes to provide similar nostalgic experiences. The simple yet metabolic furniture allows for users to define multiple configurations of the three modules. This allows it to become adaptable to varied contexts, giving each urban space its own unique zestful character.
Childhood memories revered - "To play...to step out...to connect..."
Childhood play-scapes like the ‘merry-go-round’, ‘hopscotch’ and ‘see-saw’ - informing the three design components
Bengaluru as a city is known for its "circles" - urban nodes and junctions - that form a vibrant portion of the city. In the recent years of development, these circles have been reduced to walled or fenced enclosures and have been cut off from possibilities of daily usage. Therefore, these circles, that were once vital organs for the city's functioning are selected for re-activation into the city's ethos.
The furniture combinations are then configured according to the contexts they are to be placed in, in an attempt to turn the inward looking sites into outward interactive loci.
The network of the 4 'circles' around the Krishna Rao Park in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru formed the site for intervention
Primarily a residential neighbourhood, Basavanagudi gave us the right mix of users from the elderly to the adults, who are ever so busy with their work schedules. Studying the patterns of the neighbourhood, the presence of Krishna Rao park and Gandhi Bazaar (a fruit and flower market ), gave us our probable sites. These sites constitute multiple nuclei of the area and make our intervention relevant
For the various configurations to be possible, each play-informed module which sits in association with the track then has an opportunity to grow and replicate in order to adapt to its contextual situation.
The 'setting'
How did we do this?
Our patrons were the woopies
Their requisite was wishful
Our craft was their chair (new.)
The idea of incorporating the dynamics of a playground was to give the urban chair, the element of motion and creating a feeling of nostalgia rooted in their childhood
