Design[in]g Society |Advanced Research Methods
This project was a student outcome of a one week intensive course that I supervised at the German University in Cairo.
Students were placed in interdisciplinary teams and asked to explore and develop solutions to social phenonmenas in Egypt.
Lecturer: Tom Bieling - Design Research Lab - Berlin University of the Arts
Teaching Assistants: Nourhan Khaled Hegazy - Reham Mogawar - Mona Diab
3am Bieling Kiosk seeks to rearrange, reuse, and introduce an enhanced kiosk experience
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The Story of the Kioks
Kioks are very small street shops that are found everywhere among the streets of Egypt. Although the sizes of the kiosks are very small, they usually occupy their surroundings to display their items and store their stocks. Kiosks are always overflowing with a variety of colorful and attractive packages of food and drinks. They are considered a miniature version of a café, however with a much lower cost. Customers usually have their drinks and smoke cigarettes around the kiosk, increasing the probability for owners to gain more profit, as customers who stay will most likely buy more drinks or snacks. Moreover, customers who like to hangout in the kiosk’s region prefer the ones with spacious areas around. Therefore, kiosks are usually found around the corners of streets so as to be easily viewed as well as to provide customers with large spaces to accommodate the largest amount of them. This causes a problem for the pedestrians derived from congestions on pavements.
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Observing the Kiosk on the Streets of Cairo
Almost all kiosks place large cement stones to prevent cars from parking in front of their entrance.
Groups of people gather around the kiosk randomly within its radius.
People enjoy hanging around kiosks to have a smoke or a drink.
Interviewing Kiosk Owners
Interviews & Analysis
The conflict is between kiosk owners and their customers. Some owners want the customers to hang near the kiosk while others prefer them to stay distant, either way they have no control over where customers gather.
Re-arranging – Re-using – Introducing
We aim at readapting the people’s behavior with respect to the surrounding kiosk space, by highlighting the chosen hangout areas that the owner prefers. This will be implemented through reusing surrounding objects; stone, tree, light post, walls and introducing new elements that add functions to the surrounding objects
turning cement stools to lounge area
using trees surrounding kiosk as rest area
cars now know to avoid parking infront of kiosks
"3am Bieling" is now happy with his kiosk
Now meet the team who built the Kiosk -Salma - Sara - Dina - Alyaa - Nehal - Aya
The Making Of
