Interesting discussion at the SABRE roads forum on self-enforcing speed limits in the UK–current regulations mean that if a 20 mph zone can be created through a ‘self-enforcing’ architecture of control (i.e. traffic calming) then it doesn’t legally need any signs to remind drivers, other […]
All posts filed under “Architecture & urbanism”
Anti-teenager sound weapon in Wales
Boing Boing and MAKE note a New York Times story about the Mosquito, a speaker unit produced by Compound Security which produces a high frequency sound (less audible to older people) in order to drive away teenagers hanging around in front of shops.
The Anti-Sit Archives
Transfer has an amazing collection of images of ‘Anti-Sit’ devices, mostly in New York but also internationally.
Controlling Shoppers
The ‘anarchitect’ group, Space Hijackers* have an interesting A-Z of Retail Tricks To Make You Shop – mostly psychological – including a couple of fascinating examples which aren’t well known, e.g. “Supermarkets used to have a trick placing slightly smaller tiles on the floor in […]
New Scientist : Crowds silenced by delayed echoes
Via Boing Boing – ‘Hooligan chants silenced by delayed echoes’, a New Scientist story looking at the work of Dutch researchers who are using out-of-sync replayed sound to disrupt synchronised chanting at football matches. “Soccer hooligans could be silenced by a new sound system that […]
Another possible avenue for the Mosquito
Hot on the heels of the news that Cooper-Menvier/Fulleon is to take on global manufacture and distribution of the Mosquito, my server logs show that someone found this site through looking for mosquito download mobile phone free high frequency. Now, he or she might simply […]
Changing norms
Via Steve Portigal’s All this ChittahChattah, a short but succinct article by John King, from the San Francisco Chronicle noting just how quietly certain features have started to become embedded in our environment, most notably (from this blog’s point of view), anti-skateboarding measures, traffic calming […]
High frequency ringtone download
High frequencies being tested in the urban badlands: see, no teenagers here! A lot of people find this site through searching for something along the lines of ‘Mosquito high frequency anti-teenager ringtone’, and are presumably disappointed when they find that there is no such ringtone […]
High frequency wave files back up again
They’re back up (well, the wave files anyway), thanks to the Internet Archive.
Is design political?
Over at Core77, the Design Council’s Jennie Winhall has written a thought-provoking essay, “Is design political?”, looking at the links between design and politics, and how design can be used to shape behaviour for political ends:
BBC: Safe, secure and kitsch
Image from Sweet Dreams Security website From the BBC, an interesting story looking at the work of Matthias Megyeri’s Sweet Dreams Security: “A German artist is trying to change the way people think about security, by replacing barbed wire with heart-shaped metal, and pointed railings […]