Imagine potential futures with Malmö City’s new Parascopes

Starting today, three Parascopes will help you imagine how life in a future Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden, might be. The Parascopes, also called Future Binoculars, show panoramic images based on proposals from the citizens of Malmö on how to reduce car traffic in the city.

A Parascope resembles scenic viewer binoculars but instead of showing the here and now, it displays several visualisations of how things might be in the future in that particular place.

Between 15 and 31 January, the Parascopes stand, ready for public use, in three busy Malmö locations. Experience a Triangeln (the traffic-congested heart of downtown Malmö) without cars, get a glimpse of the canal taxi at Amiralsgatan (the most polluted street in the city), or check out the car-pool hub by the Mobilia shopping mall!

The Parascopes are developed by the Malmö-based interaction design and innovation studio Unsworn Industries in close collaboration with the Street and Parks Department of Malmö City.

In a big campaign in 2007 the department asked the public for suggestions on how to reduce car traffic in Malmö. In reply, they received over a thousand wise, clever and provocative proposals from the citizens.

The Parascopes work as a platform for giving shape to and fleshing out some of these proposals. It is also a way to continue the dialogue with the public. For that reason, each Parascope show a multitude of varied, and sometimes contradictory visions. A recurring theme is that of pedestrians, bicycles and public transport taking up a greater share of the streetscape. The goal is to inspire people to fantasise, imagine and discuss how it might be to live in a Malmö where biking, walking and public transport are prioritised. On the project homepage (www.malmo.se/vagvalet) people of Malmö can continue discussing what kind of city they would like to live in.

In the next phase of the project, there will be more ways for the public to participate. Eventually anyone will be able to upload his or her visions or sketch them online on the project website.

– Using the Parascopes is completely different from going to City Hall to check out technical drawings and printed development plans. The Parascopes give you an eye-level experience of future environments, on location in the city space. You are in the middle of it all, free to explore different scenarios. This way, we hope the futures will be more tangible, clear, and easier to consider, says Erik Sandelin of Unsworn Industries, and continues: Realising that the design of urban space is not set in stone, feeling that change is possible is a first step towards participating in and acting upon how the urban environment is shaped.

– Engaging citizens in traffic engineering and city planning requires innovative thinking and a great deal of courage. Working with the City of Malmö in finding new and unconventional means to involve the public in the design of their own city has been super exciting, says Magnus Torstensson of Unsworn Industries.

– We look forward to continuing work on the Parascope platform and the other tools for participation with the City of Malmö.

Tina Giannopoulou of the Malmö Streets and Parks Department comments on the collaboration:

– We chose to work with Unsworn because they have a rare breadth of competences that spans art, design and technology. They are also used to working with participation and public space. Unsworn are very interested in and perceptive to the types of democratic dilemmas that this project touches upon. That has been very valuable.

For more information see www.unsworn.org/parascope and www.malmo.se/vagvalet or contact Magnus Torstensson of Unsworn Industries (+46707 493818, magnus@unsworn.org).

Potential Malmö future in sight. (Collage: UI, Visualisation: Annika Carlsson)