URBANSCAPE SYMBIOSIS
Our city, Our identity
Rushing through the streets of the city,
The street lights shine bright and dense
The façades pass by in a blur,
Of monochrome and neon luminescence;
.
Monumental towers of glass and metal
Surround us in a towering boundary
Confining us within man-made borders
And shrouding me with worry;
Slowing down on a red light,
I catch a glimpse of a crowd
Growing by the minute,
Seeming to be wowed;
.
I join the horde of people,
Pushing and pulling to get close
The object in question turns out to be,
Just a bench, but offering a new dose -
.
Of innovation — built with materials
Gathered from the heart of our city
Painted by local artists,
Depicting the urban nitty gritty;
It was a breath of fresh air
To see something as ordinary as a seat
Representing our ancestry and stories,
In a manner so new and neat;
.
The bench stood apart, making us realize
That the identity of our city was lost
Behind a façade of urbanization,
Modernism had come to us at a great cost;
.
The idea caught fire with such great speed
That in a matter of months, pop of colors
And materials had begun to grace our streets,
On which we had not laid eyes on since forever;
.
It was furniture in literal terms,
Lights, bus stands, swings
But to us it was establishing an urbanscape
Symbiosis, like it a new beginning;
The city now felt ours, with
People on the street, walking excitedly
To meet their neighbors and stop for a chat
At the new park, discussing the days gone by;
.
The revolution was not big, yet
it brought about a new identity, meant
To give us a sense of belonging to our home
Our city, represent!
___________________________________________________________________
BOUN’s Urbanscape: Symbiosis is a step forward that seeks to blur the boundaries between the concept of urban identity and the furniture, or public infrastructure, that represent that city. The competition aims at birthing ideas that move public furniture from industrial convenience of mass production to something more symbiotic and contextual to the urban fabric it belongs to.
For registration and more information, visit http://urbanscape.uni.xyz/
