As a designer with a master degree in Product-Service System Design I was always interested in systems thinking and its applications to my professional practice. At Oblo, where I work as a service designer, we always try to integrate it in our way of doing service design by mixing ethnography, visual storytelling and participatory design.

This year I was lucky to attend Interaction18 conference and got very much moved by the fact that half of keynote speeches were about the various aspects of systems thinking in design. …

It’s been almost 2.5 years since we have presented the project of #nevicata14 — temporary configuration of the pedestrianized Castello square in Milan during EXPO-2015 — together with other 10 architectural studios during Atelier Castello public consultation process. …

New ways of encounters and interaction in hybrid public spaces.

Starting with my thesis (Eterea) I’ve been very interested in how the new technologies affect the way we behave and interact with others and physical spaces around us. At that time I especially focused on the role of infrastructure as it was the basics to arrive to the following steps of “smart cities” and connected everything. So I began with Wi-fi specificity in Milan, also learning a lot about general features of internet connection as not just a digital services, but a physically present network redefining our understanding of boundaries and limits of spaces and the way we approach tangible…

(Or how Marx ruined the fun of playing Pokémongo for me)

Hybrid space as a media platform

A year ago when we made #nevicata14 project — temporary pedestrian configuration of Castello square in Milan for the period of EXPO 2015 — we managed to double the available budget thanks to its appeal to the manufacturers and suppliers of its elements. One part of it was of course guaranteed by central location and visibility of physical space itself, but there was also a huge contribution based on the fact that we created not just physical architectural installation, but a hybrid space — #nevicata14 existed online long before…

Disclaimer: I’m not an art critic or a scholar, just a designer interested most of all in studying the way humans interact with their built environment nowadays I’m most fascinated with the subject of hybrid space* and its cause to which The Floating Piers brings a very interesting case study.

*Hybrid space is the social space existing in more than one dimension (physical/digital, material/intangible, real/fictional, etc). One of the important aspects about hybrid space is that it is not just about additional services like Wi-Fi internet access, augmented reality or various apps and services for the better use of space…

Disclaimer: I’m not an art critic or a scholar, just a designer interested most of all in studying the way humans interact with their built environment nowadays I’m most fascinated with the subject of hybrid space* and its cause to which The Floating Piers brings a very interesting case study.

*Hybrid space is the social space existing in more than one dimension (physical/digital, material/intangible, real/fictional, etc). One of the important aspects about hybrid space is that it is not just about additional services like Wi-Fi internet access, augmented reality or various apps and services for the better use of space…

Have you heard already that the Floating Piers is fantastically amazing, marvelous, surreal, incredible and mindblowing? Well, I definitely belong to the group of over-sensitive people getting astonished by many natural and art experiences, but this one is among the best anyway.

This is the first post in series:

1. Hacking Myself With Tinder

2. Tinder&co as an industry

3. Why does Tinder work and which consequences does it have

4. Reflections on hybrid space and Tinder

You can also watch a lecture for ITESM students of Mating Urbanism course the contents of which this series expands ;)

DISCLAIMER

• This is a very subjective research which I initiated as a normal user of Tinder but then understanding its functionality I started to experiment with it. It is based on the fact that I constantly get involved into loop of self reflection about everything…