Public gaming in urban areas

2006-05-08T09:20:00.000+02:00

The public area we chose for our concept is the center of Amsterdam. The concept is not only usable for this area. But the Amsterdam area is a nice representation of a urban area where our target audience is well represented.

Concept as proposed by Guus Turkenburg

Background Research

1.1 Target
To get a hold on the survey data we need to determine which people we turn to in this project. Our target is to reach the following people with our project.
- Young Urban People
- Children

1.1.1 Young Urban People
This group of people likes to go downtown and spend the night in the city. When the party is over or when they want to go to another place they wander around through the city. We want to give them some fun stuff to do while wandering around.

1.1.2 Children
Certain areas of Amsterdam are very attractive for young starters with children because they are relatively safe (the jordaan enz.) and near the clubs and other places whey young parent's like to hang out. They main drawback for the children in the center of Amsterdam is the lack of nice playground's that is mainly because the playgrounds are more and more occupied by junk's and teenagers.

The parents rather have the children play in front of there houses where they can see what they are doing than leave the children at a public playground.

2 Location Photography
Due to a technical problem it was not able to upload any pictures

3 History of Amsterdam
The city of Amsterdam has been a big city for centuries. It has a lot of architecture dating from the 1600's to now and is known for it's canals, tulips and clogs. People of all kinds from all over the world come to visit Amsterdam for it's beauty, it's squares, the red light district and ofcourse the Vondelpark.
During daytime people shop at the Kalverstraat and the famous Albert Cuypmarkt and the Waterloopleinmarkt. At night they go to the Leidseplein or the Rembrandtsplein to dance, drink and have fun.

Concept

1.1 introduction
Last summer i went to Czech republic to go hiking. When i arrived on the airport of Prague i was ill.

So i thought it would be a better idea to find a hotel in Prague to stay till i felt a bit better. It was high season so i could not find a place to stay and the tourist information didn't know anything under 90 Euro a night. The only thing i could think off was the conversation i had with my cousin about a cheap youth hostel on a hill. I saw a hill and walked towards the hill hoping to find any signs to a hostel. When somebody asked me if i wanted to check out their brand new cocktail bar. I told him, I'd be happy to drink all their cocktails if he could tell me where to find a nice hostel. And he told me i was standing around the corner from the train to the youth hostel. The youth hostel was located on the top of the hill where the main park of Prague is located. I stayed there for a week because i was still ill. Most of the time i spend reading books in the park near the hostel. the main thing i remembered was how nice the atmosphere of the park was. Witch was because off all the children playing with a really simple painting on the ground. The painting looked like the maze on the right.

Our concept is based on this experience. We want to make Amsterdam a more friendly and fun area for children. But when we where brainstorming about this concept we thought it would also be fun to play these little games when your walking home from clubbing or when you are walking to a different bar. So we extended our target group to Young Urban People.

1.2 Illustrations
Due to a technical problem it was not able to upload any pictures

1.3 Mock-ups
Due to a technical problem it was not able to upload any pictures

2 User scenarios

2.1 Kikki Birdson
This 23 year-old expat from London works 40 hours a week and likes to go out at night, no matter what day it is. She lives near the leidse plein and usualy walks home with her friends after a night of clubbing in amsterdam. She has a lot of fun in the city and finds amsterdam the ideal place to be young.

After a night of clubbing with her friend Kikki walks home with tree of here friends who will be staying over at here place. They bump in to a maze on the sidewalk near her house and because the weather is nice this evening they decide to give it a try. When they almost finish the maze an other group of people from about their age in the same state off drunkenness joins them and they make new contacts and decide to go to an other bar.

2.2 The Jansen-Children
Twin brother and sister living in the Albert Cuyp area with their mother and her new boyfriend. They are both 9 years of age like to play on the sidewalk in front of their mother's apartment. there's no real playground in the neighborhood so they meet their friends at school and on the street where they live.

Last night the Jansen children played outside with their friends and because it's weekend they are again going to play with their neighbors today. But the sidewalk has changed, somebody painted a maze and a few other games on the sidewalk so now they can play those games to with their friends!

Assignment 1

2006-04-26T01:47:00.000+02:00

Profile of my place

For this assignment I chose the Westerpark in Amsterdam West. I come there once in a while, just doing some jogging.
I you look at the park good, you'll notice that it's made out of different parts.

The entrance near the Haarlemerplein is the old side of the park and looks quite traditional for a park. Benches, trees, bushes, a pond with some art in it and some stuff for little kids. More to the back where the Westergasfabriek is, you'll find the more modern part of the park. It's very open, and there is a lot, a lot of grass. Nice to lie on when it's nice weather. When it's nice weather, yeah...

Throughout and around the park there is a lot of art to find.

The good thing about the Westerpark is that is has to offer a lot to people of all kinds, young and old, but also the sporty and arty.

I think the Westerpark brings a lot of people together, because it's so open for everybody.

Too bad, my camera wasn't working. So you'll have to settle with these pictures I found on the Internet. Once my camera's back up again I'll replace these
images with some real shot-by-me-photographs!

Me...

2006-04-26T01:16:00.000+02:00

Yeah, it's me.

Wondering who I am? It doesn't really takes a great effort to find out...
Just google me, and you'll find enough about me I guess...

But for the lazy bums I'll give a short introduction to me.

Born 29.09.1984 and still kicking.
Now living in a nice appartment in Amsterdam West.
Occupied with:

writing this blog supposibly
playing bassguitar in my bands Gladius and Fanatic, had some nice gigs lately :)
girlfriend, Andrea, lovely babe I wouldn't trade in for all the cash on this planet... :$
got a weekendjob at Dijkman Amsterdam, selling musical instruments and stuff
freelancing a bit for Home Automation Europe, I make buttons for PDA's and stuff to turn your shithole appartment in the nicest crib on earth... ;)

Aything else you wanna know? Drop me a line and I'll surrend..err..submit...

Licensed to Scream

Public gaming in urban areas

Assignment 1

Me...