Apartment Wiki—New Song-Do
DESIGN RATIONALE
New Song-Do, a completely wired city built from the ground up in South Korea, affords the opportunity to bring newcomers together—Korean and non-Korean—into a participatory learning environment. The transfer of cultural knowledge between community members provides a key opportunity to promote collaborative learning experiences (Michalchik, 1997). Furthermore, the prevalence of technology requires that people learn how effectively use these tools to become ‘legitimate participants’ in society (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
John Kim, the VP of Strategy for New Song-do, suggested that we utilize the idea of nation-building when contemplating design concepts for New Song-do. Following this “think big” line of thought, our challenge is to design learning into a space where communities can forge links, remain connected and develop robust social capital networks. Furthermore, we wish to foster an environment where residents are encouraged to communicate with their neighbours in an effort to build these community connections, even at home.
INTERVENTION
Idea: To this end, our redesign involves the construction of an apartment Wiki in every apartment complex across the city.
Location: Our wiki will be located in accessible communal areas within the apartment including elevators, lobbies, apartments and gyms.
Design specifics: A wiki is a type of website that encourages user interaction and collaboration through easy editing capabilities. The apartment wiki will be available 24 hrs a day, seven days a week, for residents to update and remain in touch with apartment goings-on. Specific features include:
This wiki feature will encompass everything residents need to know about their apartment, including: emergency numbers, lockouts and where to recycle. Through ‘Apartment Smarts’ we hope to foster a communal knowledge base for the apartment.
This section of the wiki will feature a weekly apartment news bulletin and a listing of events happening around the apartments. Through ‘This Week’ we hope to encourage residents to check out community-building apartment events where interaction and socialization is promoted.
This section of the wiki will feature profiles of apartment residents including a special feature section for new arrivals. Residents will be able to opt-in to this feature. Through ‘Faces’ we hope to encourage residents to learn more about their neighbours and continue building social networks.
This section of the wiki will feature items for sale by apartment residents. Through ‘For sale’, we hope to encourage residents to take advantage of community resources.
This section of the wiki will feature a comment box where apartment residents can offer suggestions and comments on any number of issue ranging from events they would like to see held to complaints. Through ‘Sound off’, we hope to encourage residents to feel comfortable voicing their opinions on any range of issues surrounding the apartment.
ASSESSMENT
We can assess learning by: