HACKING URBAN FURNITURE-ZKU, BERLIN

For the last 30 years, street furniture and outdoor advertising have defined the grammar of our cities. In Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP), cities award long-term licenses for advertising in public space in relation to the partly necessary urban furniture and their
maintenance (bus stops, public bathrooms, benches, trash bins, signposts, etc.). The business model is dominated by the few large, globally oriented companies with profits running into billions. For instance, for years Berlin has been “supplied” by the Wall AG – part of the international JCDecaux group as the number one outdoor advertiser worldwide since 2009 (with a turnover in 2014 of 2,8 billion euros in more than 60 countries with 11.900 employees ).

Refined design, as the perfectly marketable scenery for customers, is an international standard here. Whether in Rome, Istanbul, St. Louis or Berlin, the feel is identical, without local identity, geared at lifestyle and current design trends.

The project ‘Hacking Urban Furniture’ aims to investigate this line of business that determines the public space of our cities, and programme it anew through artistic experiments. The project sees itself as the starting point of a long-term examination with the objective to not just raise awareness on the side of urban planningand politics but also realize actual changes in future tenders and interdependencies.

OPEN IDEAS COMPETITION:

Send us your proposal for the internationally open ideas competition of HackingUrbanFurniture. Hacking Urban Furniture is a research and action program that challenges the global Business of Wall and JCDecaux. It is an Idea Competition for alternative Modells of Urban Furniture / Public Service.

ZK/U is looking for ideas of new forms, content and concepts of urban furniture. It’s about basic concepts of new economic models, functional developments and civil society participation. It’s not about bare design questions but the interaction of society, public function and formal solution.’

• Prize money up to 5000 €. Minimum 3 prizes will be awarded.
• Deadline: 30 June 2017
• via e-mail to: huf@zku-berlin.org / for submissions from Germany also via letter to the organizer
• Price court meeting mid-July 2017
• Award September 2017
• Exhibition of all designs at ZK/U in March 2018

For more information, please have a look at the open call here

Hacking Urban Furniture Webpage

You can also download the open call document here