CAMPANA BROTHERS: CONCEPTS
NY DESIGN WEEK 2013 - WANTED DESIGN
NY DESIGN WEEK 2013 - SATELLITE SHOWS
NY DESIGN WEEK 2013 - ICFF
Two ideas for things we'll probably never see, but which would be nice if they could actually be realized.
The first is Brooklyn-based Pensa Design's Street Charge, which would be so useful that I can't ever see the City of New York agreeing to install them. The concept is to use existing street signage to hold self-sufficient, solar-powered USB chargers, conferring on citizens the ability to juice up their phones on the fly.
If installed I think they would be mobbed, but I also think that wooden shelf or bench would be awash in discarded coffee cups, half-eaten pizzas and less pleasant things in no time.
The second is an urban oasis concept called City in the Sky that makes NYC's High Line look like a subway station. Done as a collaboration between Dimitar Karanikolov, Nedialko Nedyalkov, Kamen Sirashki, Svilen Belberov, Nikolay Salutski and Miroslav Radoev, it's so beautifully wistful that I don't feel like going outside and facing the chewing-gum-encrusted reality that is New York City today.
Comments
Who is this designed for? I can appreciate a concept for the sake of exploring ideas, as unfeasible as they may be, but this just seems catered to a niche market. Who would be comfortable standing in the middle of a city street charging their cell phone? Who would even fathom leaving their coffee, or any drink for that matter, on a a surface so prone to the elements, unsanitary conditions and germs.
Would like to see the positive side to this, but I just can't.
Doesn't seem unfeasible to me, though I live in a large city. There are crowds of people constantly outside of my office building standing around with cigarettes or coffee from the place across the street. It's not that hard to imagine them continuing that behavior, but with the addition of having their iPhone plugged into one of these.