With the development of society and technology, there is an increasing number of people feeling it hard to adapt the current life or even socially exclusive especially new immigrants and tourists. Our design team planned to design a machine to boost social inclusion and promote the positive development of that area. This article will introduce an excellent example, the Galata Bridge, and then illustrate how to learn from this example in a correct and smart way during the design process.
Before design, I studied some other examples from different angels, intending to explore some creative ideas. The Galata Bridge, a traffic bridge in Istanbul, creates positive vibes for both locals and tourists without modern technology. There is car traffic over the top, fisherman over the sides and many fancy restaurants underneath. Locals can enjoy a day around the bridge, fishing and smoking with friends, enjoying tasty cheap Turkish street food with their families. Visitors could also have a great opportunity to experience true Turkish life on that bridge. Besides, the bridge provides an extraordinary view to other sites around such as Galata tower and spice market. This is certainly a positive example for social inclusion.
The Galata Bridge
By Martin Falbisoner — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38102134
Why is this bridge so successful? Design made an extraordinary contribution to it. The space under the bridge was explored for restaurants, which is definitely a wise choice. This place is not only for people to enjoy fancy food, but also leaves a positive impression in people’s heart, just like the reason why shopping centres always contain many restaurants in China. Eating and drinking is always an indispensable part of our daily life. Not just food, the location of the bridge is also an undeniable factor for the success. The bridge is close to other sites such as Galata tower and the spice market so everyone could have a chance for sightseeing around Istanbul. All these productive points are due to the design to a large extent.
Reflection on the final concept decided by our team shows that the cooperation machine is still very shallow. The original idea is explicit, creating a chance for promoting social inclusion by gathering 3 people together to make three cups of coffee for free. But this concept is hard to make more deep influence on the people who use the bridge. But how can we make the communication in the process become deeper and how can we make the machine become more interesting and appealing. I was stuck and had no idea about these questions. I tried to find out answers from this famous bridge in Istanbul.
I made some conclusions about this bridge and hoped that it can be a reference resource for our current design. Some old-traditional lifestyle should be protected, which may become a landmark in people’s heart. Locals could spend leisure time without latest technology. Fishing, talking, eating and commuting are not only parts of people’s free time but also represents the culture of this city or this country. Putting smart phones aside, people will not keep focusing on the small screen. They will be happy to talk to friends and strangers they meet. This kind of face-to-face communication is always the best way to relax. From the perspective of tourists, facing friendly locals, they will be worried about talking in another language with them. Experiencing a local lifestyle can be memorable during their visit as well, as many local cheap food and typical local life are shown to them in the most original way. So we should also consider the local culture as an unquestionable factor when designing facilities for promoting social inclusion.
However, success cannot be copied. Ignoring the context will lead to a design disaster. Our team designs for the bridge of cultural centre in Brisbane. The context is totally different. The Cultural Centre is the centre of culture in Brisbane, and a bridge across the central bus interchange connects many well-known spots, such as the Queensland Museum, the Queensland Art Gallery, the State Library of Queensland and so on. There is no doubt that the Galata Bridge in Istanbul is more traditional and the bridge in Brisbane is more modern. Nevertheless, the core of Galata Bridge, leisure function, inspired me. In spite of diverse contexts, leisure function can be applied to many places. The basic function of Galata Bridge and cultural centre bridge is providing a path for passengers. Leisure function makes Galata Bridge more attractive and even becomes a landmark in people’s heart. So leisure function is a new direction for our concept. Except cooperating for getting free coffee, people can also find a place to enjoy coffee together and even have a potential chance to start a small and easy conversation during the process. Several slogans and a table can make this expectation come true. After getting free coffee, people will see a slogan displayed on the screen beside the cooperation machine, such as “ Do you enjoy the coffee? Tell other coffee makers.” Or “Say hello and tell people where you are going to do!”. I think these slogans are easy to persuade people to talk with other coffee makers instead of going away after getting coffee. Additionally, a table for people to sit and drink coffee together would help to push a small talk. Just think about the Galata Bridge, it provides a place for people to go fishing and many conversations would happen during this activity. Similarly, the coffee table on the bridge will be an appropriate place for people to enjoy coffee and have a rest. In this way, the place can a coffee corner for people to have fun. On the other hand, some people may worry about those new immigrants and visitors who are not good at speaking and understanding English cannot get involved in a conversation. But in fact, conversations start by a slogan will not be so difficult to understand. At least, some questions like where are you from? Do you like this coffee? These simple questions would be easy to understand and answer. Thinking about the Galata Bridge, many foreign visitors have a sense of belonging after visiting this bridge, even if they cannot speak Turkish very well. That’s because they have experienced a friendly and relaxing atmosphere of this city which makes them pleased. A coffee corner also make the similar effect.
Sometimes, we will be stuck in some places during the process of design. Looking through other successful examples may inspire us in some way. However, copying other instances without consideration is highly possible to make things wrong. Many aspects should be paid attention and considered twice like context and culture. So it is necessary for us to learn from other examples critically. Combining our current design situations and those valuable points concluded above other examples can be an amazing reference resource for the idea inspiration. Be smart, be critical, be creative, every designer should think more about their design!
Reference: