Siena Design Project 2003 - number zero
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  URP - Urban Reactive People    
The project    
   
  The object of koinè's project is to design the collective spaces of Siena Municipality U.R.P. that stands for “Ufficio per le Relazioni con il Pubblico”, which may be translated in “Citizen’s Relationship Office”

The aim of the project is to design and provide a tool that should allow the exercise of Democracy and the consolidation of the Counsciousness to be a citizen.
The U.R.P. should be a dialogue moment between Municipality and citizens that should be involved in the enhancement of Municipality services, in order to define the identity and to facilitate the access to the services .
One of the fundamental aspects for the attainment of such objects consists in the integration of the existing modalities for information sharing, also without the use of new electronic tools. The purposed solutions allow the information personalization based on customers needs.
     
  The Process    
     
   

The process was articolated into several steps.
Activity analysis allows us to define user classes, activity tasks, tools, communication and interaction flows.

The results of the citizen experience of URP analysis converge into three main value: ambient awareness, identity and information access.
Ambient awareness: nowadays the URP office is located in Piazza del Campo anyway this prestigious place doesn’t guarantee the good visibility that URP aims to have. The building is anonymous and there aren’t any signs that indicate it.
Identity: considering this value the user experience reach the most low level, it is difficult for a citizen to be aware of URP existence and in the case the know it is hard for the user to find it.
Information Access: the politeness and the availability of the URP employees allow the citizen to have good and great experience.

- Architectural analysis
- City historical evolution
- “Piani di mobilità”
- Relationship between municipality and citizen
- Concepts generation
- Prototype

     
  System Overview    
     
  Centralized:
· Place much visible and symbol of the municipality
· Point of collection, elaboration and distribution of the system
· High speed of communication
· Offers all the services
· Possesses a zone of relax with panoramic sight is made up of a dozen of box and bench connected with optic fiber

Distributed and mobile:
· Permit the municipality to get close to the citizens of the periphery
· Offers a fast information
· Creates socialization places
· Supports the creation of a community of citizens
· Offers an access point wireless
· Is made up of numerous box and bench connected with fiber and/or GPRS

Broadcast and network:
· It offers all the services
· Supports the creation of a community of citizens
· Is made up of URP website and the interactive TV channel of municipality

  
     
  The Prototype    
     
    Bench requirements:

· Modularity
· Sitting function
· Socializing function
· Lighting function
· Enhancing Municipality Presence
· Connectivity

The bench is a modular and transportable element that communicates URP identity. It can be dislocated in several points of the city, above all in the periphery and in the points of greater flow of people. It’s equipped with a display that visualizes the videopostcard in standby and concurs to make the browsing of the contents.
       
 

Box requirements:

· Modular
· Lighting function
· Enhancing Municipality Identity
· Transportable with a van
· Supports Comfortable Face2Face communication

The mobile box is a modular and transportable element wich is meant to function as a front office. It integrates bench functions with the possibility to have face to face communication with Municipality employee. It can be used as an outreach for Municipality within periodical or occasional events.

  

       
     
  The Team    
     
 

 

Fabio Bartolini
He holds a Laurea Degree in Communication Sciences (2003) at The University of Siena with the maximum of ballots. In his thesis he focused on wireless possibilities for Pubblic Administrations, with a special case study in WAP system for the hospital of Pistoia. Numerous experiences as web developer. One publication of semiotic regarding Pontormo. Training as assigned press in a hospital.

Ilaria Bucciarelli is from Florence. She holds a Laurea Degree in cinema studies from the University of Florence. She is also professor at the Theatre Center of the Comune di Fiesole.


Massimiliano Patti is from Sicily. He holds a Laurea Degree in Architecture (2000), with special regard to urban architecture. In his thesis he carried out a project about the restoration and redesign of an ancient building as a public space.

Michela Rossi is from Siena. She holds a Laurea Degree in Communication Sciences (2003) at The University of Siena. In her thesis she focused on e-learning systems with a special case study in the Banking Group Monte dei Paschi di Siena.


Guido's home page Guido Serio is a junior researcher at the multimedia communication lab of the University of Siena. He holds a Laurea Degree in Communication Sciences with a thesis about the implications of the Activity Theory in the ontology modeling process. Before starting this research he worked as a electronic scenographer with the InterScena group.


Elisa Rubegni
She has master degree in Communication Sciences from Siena University and actually she attends the PhD program on Information and Telecommunication Engineering at Florence University. Actually she collaborates with the Communication Science Dept. and the Information Engineering Dept. of Siena University into many projects that concern payment service development, mobile and wireless design, educational certification and management, map and learning spatial relationships.
She is interested in cognitive science in particular in activity analysis, information design and concepts development.

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