Public Trailer Shenzhen

WHAT:

Performative urban tools for increasing the possibilities of public space.

WHY:

The myth of Shenzhen is based on the breathtaking speed of its construction.

Shenzhen had just a few decades to become a metropolis. It s urban fabric is full of potential, but the socio-economical and cultural transformations within city-life are seldom synchronized with the material construction. As spaces of continuous diversifications, cities can even change completely without hardly changing their face. After this period of acceleration, it´s time now to focus more on the development of the software, and not just on the increase of hardware of this city. To break the mono-functionality of large areas and to enrich the potential of older parts of the city new strategies have to be invented.

Public space has a fundamental role for the general aspect and function of the city. It is increasingly defined by legal parameters, concealed mechanisms and hegemonially agreed patterns of behaviour. Every culture defines itself by its different approach and use of public space. By offering new tools we could increase the potential of those spaces in a very high way. Asian Cultures have a rich tradition of informal tactics to work within public space. As those approaches were predominately focused on economic issues as trading, we ask ourselves, how to mobilize people and how to use this potential to focus on a much broader concept of public space, creating a more lively and adventurous kind of urban life.

HOW:

PublicTrailer© uses the power of the most ecological means of transport, the bicycle. It has the advantage to be very flexible, small and of easy access. The different types of bicycles vary form very economic to highly exclusive products. And, last but not least, the bicycle plays a fundamental role in the history of urbanisation of China.

PublicTrailer© is a variety of bicycle trailers with different functions which can be easily transported to the most different parts of the city. They are performative tools for the city, giving a different approach to public space and its surroundings. In combination with the bicycle the users can react very quickly on the different situations on site – they can follow the masses, they can avoid possible problems with authorities, they can form stronger and multifunctional units in combination with other PublicTrailers©.

They are a generator of situations and a tool for new urban adventures. Throughout the different use and approach the PublicTrailers© become also indicators for specific cultural codes in Hongkong and Shenzhen