Weekly Roundup 072 – 9th to 15th July

FEATURE REPORT/ ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

‘”Pokemon Go” is Quietly helping People Fall in Love with Their Cities’

Authored by Mark Wilson

Who would have thought that it would take a smart phone game to get people off their chairs and outdoors? Pokemon Go, an augmented reality mobile game, is barely a week old, and is all the rage. The game involves physically walking around the city, capturing virtual creatures. With the aid of the phone camera and GPS, the creatures and their locations are superimposed on one’s real surroundings. Apart from being addictive for both adults and children alike, the game has brought about an interesting side effect. People are actually exploring their cities and stumbling upon anonymous urban treasures, like ancient buildings with intricate details, lost in a sea of urban development; or a small green park, hidden a couple of lanes away.

The players have even taken it to the next level, by planning events and outdoor activities built around the imaginary creature hunting. This brings me back to the question, who would’ve thought that a frivolous game is capable of so much more?

Read the whole piece here.

Published by fastcodesign.


ONLINE PUBLICATION OF THE WEEK

‘Street Design – The Secret to Great Cities and Towns’
Published by John Wiley & Sons

“Living from observing is at the root of all living traditions.” Street Design – The Secret to All Cities and Towns is based on this idea. Good streets are not necessarily well designed with specialized standards. And some street design failures are a result of over planning. This publication explores a number of historic streets, retrofitted streets, new streets and street networks, and through these explorations, light is shed on the various aspects that make a street work, and those that add to the failure. Here is an attempt to understand the elements of a walkable town and a more human-centric public space.

Read the publication here.

VIDEO / PODCAST OF THE WEEK

‘Street Photography’
Created by Daniel Seo

People engage with their cities in so many different ways. Some play augmented games and accidentally start connecting with their environment, while others thrive on street photography to “capture the beauty in the mundane”. In this weeks video, Eric Kim takes us through a day (and night) of shooting the streets, sharing his experiences and talking about the connect with people and surroundings, in the due course of photographing the urbanscape and everyday life.