Is public space getting too privatized? The Department of Urban Betterment (DUB) thinks so — which is why the group is essentially hacking city streets by creating inflatable community spaces inside dumpsters. These “mobile learning labs” are aptly dubbed Inflato Dumpsters. DUB is raising $3,700 on Kickstarter to set up Inflato Dumpsters in New York City this fall:
For five days this fall, the temporary, dome-like structure will confront the tendency of city space to limit public exchange by serving as a large scale urban intervention in which workshops to create and explore the possibilities for smaller, targeted urban interventions will be produced and deployed from within.
Translation? People should actually get together and hang out in public! It’s not so unlike the idea of Sit-able Cities — although I’m not sure how many people will get excited about chilling inside a dumpster. At least not until you see this mockup, which looks more like the inside of a stretch limo than a trash can:
The 8-by-22-foot space will host workshops, and feature collaborations with film, dance, and community groups, says Joaquin Reyes, a partner in the project.
Participants will learn, for instance, how to make solar-powered air-quality-monitoring sensors, or LEDs “that can respond to sound or motion.”
Pretty cool. It’s like Park(ing) Day, but smellier!
