Many European cities are looking to redesign their public spaces. FURNISH (Fast Urban Responses for New Inclusive Spaces and Habitat) aims to merge the challenge of having more public spaces through ‘tactical urbanism’, which can reconfigure and co-create a street expanding the space for pedestrians and leisure, with local manufacturing, through the quick and effective deployment of urban elements in a neighbourhood.
FURNISH is transforming our public space!
- REFRAMING PUBLIC SPACE: New mobility solutions are reframing the public space of European Cities, this triggered its expansion. Citizens are reclaiming to further use public space and FURNISH aims to make these new pedestrianized areas liveable and active.
- INDOORS TO OUTDOORS: FURNISH born to bring indoors actions to outdoors, facilitating cultural, educational, recreational and commercial activities to take place in public space.
- URBAN LIVING LAB METHODS: FURNISH is based on living labs methods, that includes an iterative and interactive cycle of activities: elicitation, co-design, prototyping, testing, monitoring and commercialisation. Some of the learning achievements derived from the living labs emerge without a clear pre-definition because of the complexity of real-life environments.
- CO-CREATION [IDEATION, CO-DESIGN, CO-FABRICATION]: FURNISH is based on the learning-by-doing process, in which input, design and content from users plays a central role from beginning to end. Users participate in all states of the co-creation process: ideation, design, fabrication, testing and evaluation.
- VULNERABILITY: Mobile urban elements designed by FURNISH process are especially focused on supporting vulnerable population. FURNISH projects have fight against COVID-19 and have been centred in vulnerable groups such as children.
- IMPACT ANALYSIS: FURNISH methods incorporates the impact analysis of the implemented elements. The assessment of the prototypes aims to improve them from a holistic perspective thanks to its interaction with a real urban environment. FURNISH Impact Analysis is specially thought to incorporate the needs of users into the prototypes design.
- RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY: The horizon of sustainability must be addressed in all its complexity: material, economic, social and ecological. FURNISH proposals will promote 1) full life cycle consideration of the materials used 2) economic sustainability 3) city resilience and social cohesion 4) positive influence on health, wellbeing and ecological systems.