The COMSC/MATHS building have got in touch with the WSA and tasked students to design a ‘Civic Gesture Feature’ that could form part of the public realm outside their new home on the Cathays Campus. This was suggested to consist of two benches that could be designed to reflect the type of studies taking place in the building (Computer Science and Informatics or Mathematics) and that, dependent on a range of qualifying factors, had the potential to be realised on site.
However, beyond this, the unit aimed to question the current as well as the optimised use of the public realm and how the boundaries that exist between the private want and the public need can be navigated. Students were challenged to have an engagement with the city and investigate how the design of street furniture can respond to it.