Innovative Marketing: Changing the Landscape of Urban Cities through Interactive Advertising

As mentioned in my previous posts, the global economic downturn has provided many opportunities for designed interventions in the urban cityscape. In “The New Multi-Purpose Room,” I comment on two relevant projects inspired by financial crises. Both of which are responses to a current condition and, if not actual solutions, the generators for possible answers. With hundreds of projects emerging in light of recent hard times, I strongly believe that innovative design and thinking will help ease the effects of the recession. An example of this can be seen in the evolution of traditional marketing to the emerging forms of advertising and how they have begun to merge with building and infrastructure to benefit both corporations as well as the public.  Technology is playing a pivotal role in the integration of architecture and branding which has culminated in the digitalization of many urban spaces. The trajectory of merging these two entities remains mainly positive, however, there are foreseeable scenarios in which these advancements can become exploitative.

For decades, the common means of marketing a company ranged from print ads, to radio broadcasting, to television commercials. Based on the budget of a corporation and the target demographic, the appropriate venue was chosen. Since technology is constantly evolving, the ways of advertising have found the need to parallel these changes. With the invention of products such as Tivo and XM Radio, comes a way for users to bypass the aforementioned marketing techniques. As a direct consequence of these convenient services, came the demand for highly designed and innovative advertising mediums. Recently, Kentucky Fried Chicken made a truly interesting breakthrough in that the people behind-the-scenes managed to gain positive publicity for the fast-food chain, as well as issue a much-needed public service. The franchise arranged to fill pot-holes in Louisville’s many roads and in exchange, would be allowed to stamp the words “refreshed by KFC” on the new pavement. The design of such a strategy yields high visibility for the restaurant chain, much like traditional advertising would, however the byproduct is updated infrastructure in a city that would otherwise be unable to repair. Although KFC’s idea is extremely effective, it is only original in its application. Other examples of providing public services as a means of private gain can be seen in many other forms. Charmin has also been using these tactics for the past couple of years in Times Square. The toilet tissue giant inhabits prime real estate in order to offer public toilet facilities plastered with the company’s logo. Charmin has seen dramatic sales increases with the publication and visitor attendance of the bathroom experience, but at the same time, Times Square visitors are supplied with a clean and hassle-free restroom.

The above innovative marketing strategies are examples taken from large corporations. This same thought has been applied on a smaller scale throughout our nation’s cities. With the current economic status, shopping centers and malls have hit their highest vacancy levels in seven years. As a result, a dramatic increase in empty retail space has effectively caught the attention of advertisers and property owners alike. Bus stops, billboards, and taxicabs have all been canvases for advertisements in the last decade or longer and vacant storefronts are now the current subject of opportunistic ad-space. The forthcoming hardships have forced people to adapt to the current situation and professionals are using their resources more efficiently. Not only are these window ads becoming increasingly popular, they often times supply an equivalent income as compared to renting to an actual tenant. Inwindow Outdoor, based out of Manhattan, reports that a single ad “might charge advertisers anything from $18,000 USD to $80,000 USD a month.” This trend in storefront advertising has led to another interesting idea in the field. Landlords are now shifting their property’s programmatic uses in order to cater to a broader demographic. A theater in Virginia recently leased its failing venue to the local community college. It now supports classrooms, two lecture halls and offices. These examples are lessons in versatility and resourcefulness that will allow our cities to survive.

Although beneficial, the abovementioned approaches employed by KFC, Charmin and building owners are more market strategies and development based tactics rather than architectural schemes. Even though these ideas are loosely related, there has been a definite merging of architecture and marketing. Integrating media into buildings has been a recent trend that is quickly emerging as a common practice. Firms devoted to these methods, such as AG4, have even been created with the aim of “expanding a [companies] identity into the spatial dimension.” Progress in fields such as LCD displays coupled with the economic downturn has made the pairing of façades and advertisements an inevitable development that ultimately created an increased interest in communication through architecture. The stagnant print ads used to plaster the sides of buildings will slowly become obsolete as technology is pushed. The popularity of personal electronic devices, such as the iPod and Blackberry, has lessened people’s awareness and natural senses. Simply put, people are less responsive to their environments and immersed in their individual worlds. This notion of wanderers blindly navigating a city has rendered the many billboards and print ads that adorn our urban fabric obsolete. In an attempt to more efficiently grab the attention of the people, billboards and other advertisements have gone digital. Following this trend, architects have incorporated high-tech LCD screens into the facades of their buildings in an effort to further engage the masses. An example of this fascinating technology can be seen in the photo above, which demonstrates a transparent screen that displays illuminated moving advertisements. An even newer development that has yet to enter the public realm of our cityscapes is Augmented Reality. Companies such as GE and Mini have both produced marketing schemes using this new technology which essentially uses recognition software and cameras to display real objects or people interacting with virtual entities. This complex process can be seen on GE’s SmartGrid website.

The introduction of new technology, such as Augmented Reality, into the built environment is inevitable. Much like the evolution of the billboard, and the use of digital building facades, it is only a matter of time before advertisements become increasingly more interactive. The contact between the ad and the public can be as latent as the print pictured at left or as invasive as a digital image that captures a passerby and alters it in whichever way sells. At what point will society draw the line on advertising in the public realm and how will companies filter who is engaged? The layering of architecture, advertising, and technology has the potential to be very productive, but at the same time extremely invasive. The unknown factor is how low marketing executives are willing to go.

India: A Case Study For Living

In light of the recent global economic crisis, I find it necessary for the world to think innovatively on the way in which we live and build. As the scope of the world drastically changes, the cities we inhabit must follow. No stranger to this transformation is the developing country of India. Weaved into many of the major cities is a network of impoverished neighborhoods. These regions have often been labeled as “slums,” for lack of a better term. Their relevance to urban studies is apparent in that one-sixth of the world’s population occupies some form of slum and the billion people this includes is expected to double in the next few decades. These areas are the collective product of the societies who create them, making them the purest form of an organic urban condition. As a precedent, they are particularly interesting because the issues that surround them are so complex. These controversies are often seen from a cynical outside point of view, and rarely looked at as a possible catalyst which could produce applications of improvement for the modern society. In this post I consider an article by Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava, who are affiliated with the Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research. Titled, “Taking the ‘Slum’ out of Dharavi,” the argument clearly observes the positive aspects of the low-income societies depicted in the recent film Slumdog Millionaire. In addition, I further examine a post by Katia Savchuk, entitled, “Housing Post-Disasters,” which offers an insight into the effectiveness of the housing provided as a result of natural disasters. The aforementioned articles and their respective comments can be found on the links above, but have also been placed directly below.


“Taking the ‘Slum’ out of Dharavi”
Comment

While Slumdog Millionaire has provided a vast array of discussion on the internet, I am pleased to see an argument of such substance and open-mindedness. I have recently been lucky enough to travel to India, and although I was unable to visit Mumbai, I feel that cities such as Delhi and Varanasi were of significant comparison in regards to your thoughts. The cinematic collage of Mumbai, which ultimately culminates as the image of Dharavi in the film, struck an eerily familiar tone from my days in India (seen at right). People who have never experienced these pocket neighborhoods would find it easy to draw negative conclusions about them; however, I agree whole-heartedly that there is a definite lesson to be learned from the “sheer resourcefulness of its inhabitants” and the organic nature of these areas. What I enjoyed most about my visits, also shared by that “certain brand of photo-reporters and slum tourists,” is the urban palimpsest quality that has been laid over time. The locals drying clothes and selling food amongst the grazing cows all superimposed on centuries of architecture that has been broken, patched, rewired and adapted over time. This serendipitous charm and the sensory overload that you receive with every turn is what makes India worth seeing. But perhaps this is the attitude of the fortunate visitor and not the viewpoint of the end-user of these areas. I cannot help but wonder whether these people are truly benefitting from the landfills that they inhabit. Albeit, they provide a level of economic value in the way that they recycle, but there must certainly be a better, cleaner, more sustainable method to the madness that occurs in Dharavi. I believe the people here make do with what they are given and are incredibly resilient, which results in the photogenic nature of these regions, but is that reason enough to say that they are happy with their current situations? I also agree that spreading development of Mumbai over the area would be a negative, but do you think there could be some way the area could be developed to enhance the cleanliness, safety, and economic production of Dharavi without displacing the local residents?


“Housing Post-Disasters”
Comment

With the current increasing frequency in natural disasters, now is a more appropriate time than ever to discuss the issues of post-disaster housing. As a designer, I naturally feel that good design should always be the point of departure for a better solution. In the lower-income regions of India, their success comes with their ability to adapt their environment. Evidence of this overlap in infrastructure, technology, building, and lifestyle is apparent in the layering seen on any given alley in India (see picture at left). Perhaps this is the reason that the “cookie-cutter” homes were left vacant soon after they were provided. Do you think that a more suitable solution could have been a kit-of-parts where locals are supplied the resources to design a more personal dwelling? I feel that this could conceivably be a more sustainable approach in that the end user is more likely to use a home programmed to their uses. The makeup of the kit could simply be designed based on the region that it is being supplied to and custom tailored towards the indigenous population. For example, in the fishing village of Chandrabhaga, materials needed to store and process fish could be provided. Another consideration I have noticed in your post is the appearance of modern ideas in the relief structures. The home in Mundasahi that “can be expanded as resources become available” echoes the ideas instilled in the modern prototype by Le Corbusier, the Museum of Unlimited Growth. The use of the rooftops in these homes also mirrors Corb’s five points of architecture, where the ground plane taken by the buildings footprint is restored in the form of a roof garden. Could this use of modern architectural ideas or reverse precedent study be incorporated into the houses in order to improve their usability?

The Art of War: World Conflict Informs Urban Intervention

It is the goal of this Blog to put forth regional influences which shape architecture in a constantly evolving world. Since the landscape in which we dwell is always changing, we must be open to the departure of existing systems and preconceived notions of building. This abandonment of common thought should also be applied to our understanding of hierarchy and public space within the urban cityscape. In my previous post, titled “The New Multi-Purpose Room”, I referenced a topic that is deserving of some further discussion. Within the last few decades there have been many political conflicts that have occurred across the globe, but until recently, they have remained distant events in regards to the architecture community. It is this unconventional realm of architectural influence that I raise the issue of conflict urbanism. In this post I will present two ensuing projects that were designed as a response to regional conflicts and hopefully create some dialogue within the discussion.

Conflict urbanism can be described as architectural and urban responses as a result of opposing regions of tension. An example of this can be seen in the Berlin Wall. The project mentioned in my previous post is “Metastructure” by Lebbeus Woods. In this exploration, Woods examines the conflict involving the Serbian and Croatian invasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The nature of these attacks was governed by the NATO enforced no-fly zone and thereby forced to be grounded. As a response, Woods proposed to erect an artillery-impenetrable wall that would have to be engaged by foot (rendered at left). The extreme thickness and labyrinth-like spatial quality of the Metastructure would prolong invasions and eventually separate large battalions into smaller groups. These groups of soldiers would ideally become famished and be forced to post stations and form eventual colonies within the confines of the buffer zone. Within these settlements, local economies could emerge as local Bosnian farmers penetrate the spatial wall in order to trade food and water for other goods and services.

Although this response to the Bosnian war is a bit romanticized, it continues to be a worthwhile discussion for the creation of boundaries. Even though this exact scheme probably would not work in the real world, the ideas that are infuses into the design promotes a new use for walls as spatial mechanisms rather than vertical boundaries. In a world full of property lines and retaining walls, where else might this idea be incorporated?

Another area of conflict that has influenced a recent project takes place among the Israelis and the Palestinians. This sensitive situation, if for nothing else, has yielded a particularly interesting architectural intervention in Viktor Ramos’, “The Continuous Enclave: Strategies in Bypass Urbanism”. As a result of the Oslo Accords, modern day Israel is subdivided into communities that form an intertwining network of Palestinian and Israeli settlements. The physical division of these neighborhoods creates a disconnection between each group. The continuous enclave creates a break in the vertical boundaries and bridges the gap between each cluster of Israelis or Palestinians (seen at right). These mega-structures create opportunities for housing, transportation, and even agricultural complexes. While providing a means of traveling safely through Israel, the proposal also provides a means for expansion for each group as the current system of sharing the landscape is simply isolated nodes making up a larger network of cities.

The fantasy of the continuous enclave remains to be just that, fantasy. Realistically, I would like to see the project deal directly with the hostile situation in Israel. Instead, it offers an over-the-top solution that, rather than confronts the issues, ignores them. As seen in the title of the article, the continuous enclave simply “bypasses” the conflict. Inversely, as a theoretical thought, it is basically a literal interpretation of bridging over vertical boundaries. The simple move of elevating the ground plane into a synthetic layer of habitable space has been seen in many theories such as Constant’s New Babylon as well as Yona Friedman’s Ville Spatiale. Unlike this project however, Constant and Friedman’s ideas were projected around half a century ago. The two structures proposed in these theories also happened to be open-trussed, airy solutions that appeared much lighter and sensitive to the existing context. This Ramos’ enclave appears to be a bulkier design that would cast mammoth shadows that would eclipse the land that it passes over, possibly creating further conflict.

Perhaps there is no architectural intervention that could possibly solve a war between nations. To say that good design of an environment can solve issues of this magnitude and complexity is a bit of a stretch, however, these projects can also be described as an idealistic approach to a greater issue. These solutions, at the very least, serve as vehicles to deliver awareness abroad and the theory provided can give a point of departure for the end product that actually produces change.