Serea

Client: RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) & Umeå Kommun Date: September 2021 - January 2022

A connection to nature provides both physical and mental wellbeing for people. This pictorial reframes the facilitation of a connection to greenspace for urban residents. Instead of transforming the urban space with green features, this project transforms the experience of existing green features.

Departing from a case study for a road to be reconstructed, I designed a technology-based intervention ‘Serea’, which combines a cardboard-made tool and a smartphone. It creates an ambiguous navigation tool that affords being in-the-moment, wandering, and a sensory connection to one’s surroundings.

Serea is a DIY cardboard kit with accompanying web-app which guides you to your destination using a soundscape, while you wander in the moment and get lost in your surroundings. Using GPS and your phones’ compass, Serea makes sure you’ll never truly be adrift.

The project cuts across disciplines of research, design and urban planning and integrates them to illustrate a novel approach to the experience of green in public space.