Roshini Pushparaj

Practice of Public Scholarship

Good street design concerns all entities of the society. Familiarising oneself with the elements of street design not only makes us aware of secular designs, but it also has the opportunity to challenge the efficiency of a street and the necessity to reorganise the priorities of street design (i.e., deviating from the car-oriented streets). The initial research and academic output was a short 10-session course for design students and young professionals, explaining the needs of street design in extensive detail.However, the target audience for the initial research was design students of various disciplines, which is why the language was for the knowledgeable and not a layman. The work was also presented in a problem-and-solution manner, making it a straightforward learning method. In this case, for the larger public audience, it is critical to familiarise them with what elements would make for a good street design for themselves and people who do not fall under the same category in terms of mobility, accessibility, lifestyle, etc. Furthermore, familiarising people with what is necessary in street design for the larger society also builds awareness of what needs to change in today’s policies to accommodate better practices. Hence the storyboard for the game isolates very visual, physical and material elements of street design and attached evidence proving the feature’s efficiency. Similarly, it picks out certain deterrent elements that need to be actively tackled, giving this game more dimension than a progressive board game. The original way of presenting the research (i.e., an academic course) was a very visual process. Hence it was imperative to maintain that visual process for better learning. However, another observation was the lack of materiality, which in turn made the information in the course work with very low chances of retention. Hence, this choice of a game is supposed to bank on the materialist aspect of learning, emulating the real-life scenarios of material-intensive practices of street design. The personal experiences of streets are very spatial and visual. Therefore, the intent is to emulate a similar experiential learning opportunity by opting for a board game. The idea is to primarily introduce elements of street design (which directly relate to the coins/play cards available). As this material has to be accessible to all, people would ideally familiarise themselves with the coins through the instruction/rule book (as to what power each coin/card holds). Next, they place it in relation to the board, a mock scenario of a road, hence understanding (As they play the game) how these elements work in relation to others and how ultimately they may make for an ideal street. Colours also play a massive role in consuming these concepts. Apart from realism (like using green for landscape), the game also tries to bring in colours for other hardscaping as well (blue to indicate skywalk, a colour that children always associate with the sky). This is a 2 to 4-player game, each aiming to create the most efficient street possible. But the entire board is an eco-system as well, making them different stakeholders in the development of the society (i.e., public streets). This game has a very black-and-white understanding of elements and how they may be a good or bad addition to a street. While the research has explored the reasoning and evidence, the game has created that steady bifurcation to impact all ages equally and make this an engaging game. For the same reason, the game has not explored complex concepts like TOD and Complete streets, but instead focused on the elements that built those concepts in the first place.