PUSH SIT MAKE: RECONNECTING A POST-PANDEMIC COMMUNITY 推動。對坐。創造 : 重新連接疫情後的社區

​PROLOGUE ​

Our proposal honors the simple act of deliberate gathering as an essential creative act within a community.

PUSH SIT MAKE celebrates a hopeful return to human contact while still referencing the patterns and dimensions of an era of social distancing and public space restrictions. Against the grey, stained concrete of the pier and surrounding highway, brightly-colored, boldly geometric wooden worktables stretch like a dashed line to the end of the pier, offering the community a place to sit, to talk, to work, to play.

CONCEPT

Push Sit Make, is a call for community-building in three acts:

Push: The commons must be negotiated. 

Users are invited to adjust the location of the work-tables to suit their needs or plans for the site. The act of adjustment is also a space for the negotiations that ultimately reinforce our sense of community and belonging.

Sit: The commons must be occupied. 

Sitting—officially a ‘passive’ use of the public realm—here is constructed, collective, and deliberate. In groups of 2, 4, or 36, people activate the intervention though individual acts of recreation or collective acts of conversation, discussion, argument, or sharing.

Make: The commons renews through creation.

​With a series of curated activities using various assemblies of the installation, we involve the community in building social capital. The piece is a place for sharing craft, food, games. As a simple urban furniture, the tables become a platform for learning, working, and exhibition. These shared experiences that reinforce our collective value.

CONNECTIVITY & COMMUNITY BONDING

Too often, public installations can confuse and intimidate users with esoteric concepts or overly technical operations. We choose instead to provide a bold but simple installation that any potential user (no matter their age, ability, education, language or status) will intuitively understand how to use and modify the installation. No instructions needed. Yet, through these simple gestures and plain furniture, new dialogues, new experiences and new narratives are allowed to unfold on the site.

Despite recent upgrades to the harbourfront public realm of North Point, the promenade and adjacent open spaces still tend to be hostile to people wishing to stay. Push Sit Make is designed to bring neighbors together, and North Point provides a dense, multi-generational, diverse, dynamic, and creative community that might truly benefit from the installation and events. As urban designers and landscape architects, we subscribe to the idea that any intervention in the public realm should expand (rather than obstruct) the potential for social ‘commons’.

AFTERLIFE

​Push Sit Make requires little maintenance after it has been installed. The components of the installation: the ‘picnic tables’ and ‘guide floor’ are double sealed against environmental damage and feature strong and simple plywood joints with metal reinforcing. The tables have been designed and detailed so that they may be re-used after the via North Point event period as bold, unique urban furniture in sites throughout the community afterwards.

序幕

我們的設計重視聚集這個簡單的行為。聚集，為社區帶來創造力及能量，在疫情消退之時，我們希望透過此設計，讓社區有一個合適的空間慶祝聯繫得以恢復。是次設計仍然參考了社交隔離的模式及公共空間的規範。對比於碼頭及高速公路的灰色混凝土，我們的設計顏色鮮豔，帶出高對比及能量。與整體環境形狀匹配的粗體幾何木製工作。

設計故事

Push Sit Make 通過以下三種方式建立社區：

推動．公用的地方需協調。
使用者可按他們的需要及場地的計劃，而合適調整工作台的位置。然而，這個推動的行為，還是需要跟相鄰的使用者協調，這種友好的互動，有望能增強社區協調意識。

對坐．公用的地方需被充分使用。
坐，是種較被動的公間空間模式，而在這設計中，則需要經構建，調整及商榷。在二人﹑四人﹑甚或至三十六人的群組，對坐的個體都能透過其使用空間的意向，表演及活動，從而激活被動的使用者發現新的可能性。

創造．公用的地方需透過溝通共享而更新。
公用的地方需透過溝通共享而更新。通過一系列精心策劃的社區活動，包括手工藝，食物會及表演，設計成為共享一系列非凡體驗的平台。

連通性與社會連系

公共設施常常會使人迷惘和害怕過深的概念或過度的技術指標。相反，我們選擇提供一個大膽而簡單的介入，任何潛在的用戶（無論他們的年齡，能力，學歷，語言或身份）都將直觀地了解如何使用和修改安裝。無需說明。但是，通過這些簡單的舉動和簡單的家具，新的對話，新的體驗和新的敘事被允許在場地上展開。

儘管最近對北角的海濱公共場所進行了升級，但長廊和相鄰的開放空間仍對希望留下來的人們不算友善。 Push Sit Make旨在使鄰居聚在一起，北角提供了一個密集的，多代的，多樣化的，動態的和富有創造力的社區，這些社區可能會真正從安裝和活動中受益。作為城市設計師和景觀設計師，我們贊成這樣的想法，即對公共領域的任何干預都應擴大（而不是阻礙）社交“共性”的潛力。

未來

Push Sit Make安裝後幾乎不需要維護。裝置的組成部分：“野餐桌”和“軌道地板”是雙重密封的，可防止環境破壞，並具有堅固而簡單的帶有金屬加固的膠合板接頭。這些桌子經過精心設計和細化，以便路過北角活動結束後可以重新使用，作為大膽，獨特的城市家具擺放在整個社區內。