"on the way"space
21 Balançoires
Streets of Montreal
by Mouna Andraos and
Melissa Mongiat
Profile
Nowadays, public transport has play an important role in our day life, not really for me but for most of the working people. They going to work by public transport such as LRT, buses, taxi and so on every morning so they have to spend minimum 1 to 2 hours at station to wait for their public transport. People hates waiting, so do me. In the most case, we just slide our phone or listen to music while waiting because there’s nothing special for us to do except sit down and wait.
Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat
Melissa Mongiat is co-founder, with Mouna Andraos, of Daily tous les jours, a design studio with a focus on participation in public spaces. The studio comes from the fields of interaction design and narrative environments. We create collective experiences.
A bus stop can just not only a boring place to wait for bus. In Malaysia, there’s no extraordinary bus station with so called “designed”. Every bus stop is the same in Malaysia. Located by the busy road side, with simple shading, benches for sit and a wall full of advertisement of loan. There’s no design on it, everything is mass produced. Imagine yourself sitting under the hot sun, listen to noises produced by cars driving across, I would be very frustrated every time while waiting for buses. If we could apply some design idea on it, what will happen? Let’s see.
I would suggest if the bus stop could provide people some interaction, either interaction between people or even object. There’s a lot of good example that change our stereotype towards a “on the way” space. Of course, people do something while waiting. Different people loves to do different things while they are free. For me, I would prefer to read and listen to music while waiting. It depends on the area. If it’s near to school, a small portable library at the bus stop would be more suitable. People can read the books provided while waiting. You could exchange the books as well. It doesn’t need high budget to makes a bus stop interesting. Just a rack with books, efficient sunlight, that’s enough.
In Montreal, a team of designers whose goal is to bring magic to everyday events, has placed an interactive installation of musical swings alongside a Montréal city street which is next to a bus stop. This project is called 21 Balançoires, which is one of my favorite project that change a boring transit place into a place where I would like to spend my time there.
21 Balançoires consists of a series of 21 musical swings. When in motion, each swing triggers different notes. When used all together, the swings compose a musical piece in which certain melodies emerge only through cooperation. It successfully bring some joy for the people who is waiting for the bus. People likes swings, from child to elders. I personally think that it’s a good idea to collaborate the idea of musical instrument and a bus station. As we know, music can change ones mood. Instead of listen to hectic noise from vehicles, sweet music produced from 21 swings would calm the people.
Coloured swings brings happiness visually to us as well. People like kids prefer colour instead of black and white which gives us a sense of industrialized. For 21 Balancoires, different swing represent different musical instruments like piano, harp, guitar, and vibraphone. The design is to bring happiness to the people and I think it did a very good job to entertain the people who are waiting for public transport.
Human interaction was part of the design intention as well. When in motion, each swing triggers different notes. When used all together, the swings compose a musical piece in which certain melodies emerge only through cooperation. It’s a game where, from the start, you need to adjust to the actions of others. When multiple swings move in synchronicity, a mini scale is played, revealing more notes and melodies. When all swings are in use, a secret musical mode is activated to give a special reward to players a synthesizer sound plays on all swings and transforms the experience. It makes lots of fun.
In conclusion, I think Malaysian designer have to put more concern into a smaller scale. We start from the simplest thing, human. You would never know such little change can change their everyday mood. If a boring “on the way “place can be so interesting, people can have fun there. People would enjoy their waiting time instead of wasting it. For me, happiness is essential for people, and the source come from surrounding. It would be a good thing if everyone who passed the bus stop stopped and smiled for at least a moment.