This is an interactive installation where the visitors can create their own city with its citizens. The challenge is to create a city that is diverse and inclusive with a good balance of tenants; residential, business, commercial and leisure. Then the city will flourish. If the balance is bad, the citizens will be less happy and the city will decay.
When placing a block (sizes 1, 2, 3 or 4 units) on the skyline, the code facing inwards, the installation detects which block, its position and orientation. The projector will project a animated image on that very position with its tenants. By twisting the block in 1 of 4 directions the tenants will be 1 private apartment, 2 business, 3 shop or 4 leisure.
The installation is a game where the visitors can try to create a positive, thriving city by choosing the right mix of these 4 functions, by making sure that the tenants will have both shop, services and things to do on their spare time. It might not be a good idea to place shops far up from ground level as customers might not find them and it might not be a good idea to place a small flat without any windows on the side. In this city, all tenants can stay normal, go bad or good.
Funky Town will let anyone be a city planner and get an understanding how complex a city is, how important it is to create a friendly and human city – and how easily things can go wrong if not looking at all aspects of what makes a city great.
The project was created by Max Bjorverud and Hakan Lidbo at Rumtiden Idea Lab in Stockholm, Sweden, in collaboration with Swedish Institute and assisted by Mikael Sjösten and Per Magnusson.
