Interactive Shade

PROBLEM
The Seoul Plaz??a is a central place in Seoul that holds many programs including cultural events, exhibitions, and public performances, etc. for the Korean people. Also, The Seoul Plaza is an important and symbolic spot (not only from location-wise but also from a historical perspective), where citizens are able to get together in times of national crises, or when they have something to wish about Korea. For example, during the 2002 Soccer World Cup, a huge number for people got together to cheer for the Korean team. And most recently the Seoul Plaza has become a place for people to hold a candle light assembly.
However, because most of those events held in the Seoul Plaza take place in short time periods with temporary event protocols, there are many inefficiency issues for those who hold and participate in the events. These are economical and time-related problems that arise whenever a switch in the event programs inevitably take place. Moreover, even when the Seoul Plaza has no events, there are no trees and benches that can provide shelter or shade for visitors from the sun or rain, making the space less than a comfortable place for the citizens who want to take a rest or otherwise spend time there.

PURPOSE
Specifically speaking, the Interactive Shade Project provides the space where people can stay comfortably under an umbrella structure on both sunny and rainy days, creating the necessary shade and/or shelter, so that the visitors (users) can have a more enjoyable public space as in a park. More generally, the Interactive Shade Project is a futuristic public space project which features a Built-in construction of umbrella structures. It will not only help keeping the existing function of the Seoul Plaza but also facilitate the new role that it is currently playing. At the same time, the Interactive Shade Project is a sustainable and green design proposal for future public squares/spaces that looks to solve the issues of economical matter and time loss mentioned above.
DESIGN PROPOSAL
The INTERACTIVE SHADE project was started with three objectives in mind for the
Seoul Plaza space. The first was to enable citizens to use the space more intimately. The second was enabling the space to hold hundreds of different programs efficiently and flexibly. And the last was to reduce the loss of time and finances that occur whenever event programs switch.
In order to address these issues, I suggested the utilization of intelligent architectural fabric structures, as in combining the preexisting Tent structure with the interactive mechanisms and systems such as the Auto-Folded umbrella structure, the Interactive Pole system and the Panel-Link system. This sustainable shelter structure would exceed the limit of simple mechanism from the old tent structure, which is not changeable or flexible. Also, it can make the composition of the plaza space more functional and dynamic.

www.itp.nyu.edu/~msl364

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