Public facility design I



Xindu central park located in the district with a significant amount of human flow every day and is the target location of this project. As designers, we wanted to propose a series of public facilities design that suits this park.


Through this project, we want to explore the relationship between public facilities and the urban ambiance. We always put users in the center of the design and try to use the public facilities design to shape the inhabitants' everyday life.



A park for all



The central park located in the fast-growing area in the center of Xindu district, Chengdu city. The location is close to the university campus and residential areas. There should be many different people use the park, despite age gender and social class. However, most of the users are middle-aged people, which creates an exclusive atmosphere. Since it was a recently build one, there were a lot of public facilities, like public drinking facilities and signage system need to be added.









In this CBD area, there are many international style architectures, just like many hard and edgy boxes standing in the center of the district. We want to design a series of public facilities that combines organic form with the functionality to create an oasis in the fast-paced city.


As a group project, our vision is that the park is isolated from the "fast lane" when people step into the park they can get away from the stressed-out city and slow down at least for a while. So they could have some time for themselves or others. People who work nearby could have some lunch here and have a small break. People could bring their dogs or cats here without worrying about water. People with disability or different hight have equal access to drinking water. Homeless people have a place to sleep.




User-centered design



Disabled



Disabled is a group that usually be ignored in public facilities design. But we believe everyone should have equal access to public space. We need to create an inclusive public space.



Homeless people



Central park is a quite safe area in this project. So we want to create a place for homeless people to stay during the night.



People with pets



Many inhabitants living in big cities choose to live along with a dog or cat. And owners of a pet always worry about the heat while walking them, especially in summer. So this is a problem we need to consider.



Cleaners



Not only visitors is the user of the park, but also the public cleaners. How to make it easier for workers to clean is a question for us. This is a group who's easily ignored by us. So we need to take them into account.

​







A bench during the day



The wood curve surface design provides people with a variety of ways to sit on it. People could choose the way they feel comfortable to sit. Another purpose of this design is let people slow down their peace a little for a short time; enjoy the time with others. So the organic form of the bench encourages people who sit on it to interact with each other, instead of ignoring others.









A bed at night



At night, the bench is a bed for homeless people. There is a position where is comfortable to lie on and sleep.





This series of public facilities design was inspired by an architect Zaha Hadid; her parametric architecture and organic forms. We combined the traditional Chinese ideology "Shan Shui" (mountain-water) with the organic forms to make visitors feel zen and peaceful while staying in the park. ​



Public drinking water facilities



After research, we found that people in Chengdu barely use public drinking water facilities. The main issue is not that the water is not clean enough, but the facilities make people feel the water is not clean enough to drink. So we came up with the solution to hide the drain of the drinking water facility so people don't see the stains around it. In this way to enhance users' experience while drinking water in the facilities.



Higher tap



We took people with different heights into consideration of the design. As a result there are two taps in one drinking water facility. This tap is for taller people.



lower tap



A lower tap for other people and children.



Hidden drain



We hide the drain inside of the facility so users can't see the stains around it, which make them feel better to drink the water.



Press once



There's a physical bottom to fill the water bowl for pets. Press one to fill the bowl with clean water.



Press twice



Press twice the button to remove the water after visitors' dogs or cats drinking.





We always put users in the center of the dsign. For public drinking facilities, we took a wider range of users into consideration: people with different heights, disabled people, and people's pets. And it reflects on the public drinking water facilities design; everyone has equal access to water in the park.





Type



Product design, Public facilities.


​



Team



Jingyuan Zhang, Hui Xu

Student project: 10 weeks



My role



Field research, Design research, Concept development, Sketch, 3D modelling, Rendering, Presentation.