The experiment on human beings

As part of the summer practice urban design known blogger did some research Ukrainian Boulevard.

Few people know, but on the other hand the European shopping center, directly behind McDonalds on Moscow river, there is a pedestrian zone with plitochki, fountains and benches:




Fountains in its current form was created 10 years ago. Since then, fountains almost nothing has changed, including the number, location and gray benches



Arrangement shops:



At baseline, I intuitively felt that in the southern part of the small shops and they are always busy, but would like to objective data. Then I made the observation form of benches, with which it is very easy to describe what is happening



Monitoring the benches during the day showed a constant demand for seating on the boulevard. Middle simple shops is only 5 minutes, the average time on the bench than 30, they are constantly busy

Benches in the lower zone



In addition, it was observed that people often have to stand or sit in uncomfortable places, which clearly reduces the attraction of the place

Dear man to sit on the ground



Many moms with strollers walking more than 3 hours



Near the busy benches often are people



In this context, the idea to put the experiments on human beings to conduct an experiment. I thought, well, OK, compose and publish we are recommendations that need more benches, and we will say yes 10 years, all right, complaints any have been reported and generally run across more crowds with beer and spoil it, let's leave it at that. So I decided to do a classical intervention with benches made of wooden pallets: cheap supply shop and see whether or not to use it.

Pallets gave me free at the nearest construction



Collected for 1 night



Lavochki were sequentially installed in several places. The success of the shop at the Ukrainian Boulevard was immediate, it immediately began to sit people





When it started to rain, some even moved it under the tree!



The experiment showed that it's a good place to shop. We watched her for a few hours during the day and night and it is constantly used





Another point where I set up shop - about McDonald's. They are constantly engaged in all the tables in the street and people sit on the fence



17. Here, it is also found once users place good.



18. The third place is where I put the benches and they enjoyed stable demand - bus stop



19. An excellent example on the theme of limited mobility of citizens





Now I tell you about a rather controversial step of the experiment, for which we have decided to call for street musicians and tried to find unnecessary chairs with a view to keep them on the street (not found). There need to digress to explain the meaning of these actions. At the end of the boulevard is an interesting piece of land with trees and grass





Within a radius of 100 meters there are McDonald's and mall attendance of more than 100,000 people a day, within a radius of 50 meters a day passes 30,000 pedestrians



However, the number of visitors to this location is only slightly greater than 0, about the number of homeless people living there. How did it happen?

With several parties long fence fenced the place in the end there is no passage



Everything is so bad that Brasserie Cork fenced summer terrace another fence with barbed wire!

What to do with this place? Holders of the European offer to build a parking lot, but I think it's a mistake. In order to show the potential of the place, I decided to invite musicians to add seats and watch the reaction of people. Unfortunately, the hour of X, when the musicians came, I did not find the chairs and had to put two benches and stools, table top make of the remaining scraps. About 19 hours we have set shop and anyone without explanation, cellists started playing covers of various well-known songs.



Just 5 minutes benches were filled on what is essentially an experiment and stopped - there was nowhere to sit



On the one hand, everything seems to be successful - the people stayed for about 20 minutes, where they never linger, despite the scorching sun. On the other hand, one could argue that good musicians will listen to anywhere. In addition, intended to add a lot of places, not two benches, so this stage of the experiment was not fully implemented.

Nevertheless, people sat on the benches and after the departure of cellists, and one company is back here in 40 minutes





Now the shops are on the Ukrainian Boulevard and McDonald's, I let them float freely. They survived for 5 nights and more rain. Someone moved my bench under a tree, then a couple of days she has someone to love it. In three places - on the boulevard, at the McDonald's and stop shops are in constant demand, despite the fact that they have not been painted. Thus, the experiment shows the feasibility of installing a shop in these places

So, spending $ 0 and 1 evening, you can check the need for change in any place and to turn people's behavior upside down :)



Source: watti.livejournal.com