Revival is an autonomous urban furniture system using urban spaces to take social interaction to a whole new level. As an adaptive infrastructure, Revival enhances mobility’s role in communication, education, and cultural exchange. The mobile elements help enliven the cityscape and are accessible to everyone.

As life shifts more and more towards the virtual space, with a large portion of social interaction taking place digitally, people have become physically stationary and virtually mobile. As a result, the quality of exchange suffers significantly, causing a peak in social isolation and a decline in valuable soft skills.

Revival is our answer to this problem. The concept is inspired by the behavior of human beings in public spaces. We have observed how people intuitively position themselves and funneled this unique data set through a series of model making exercises.

To get a sense for the possibilities when designing urban spaces, we used machine learning and merged artificial intelligence with applied practices. The mobile units that make up Revival’s system can be controlled not only manually, but also remotely. They can be grouped functionally by a city’s administrative body, or arranged variably by the day-to-day citizen. It is here that the use of city robots becomes conceivable.

The requirements for our “multi-purpose kit” were systematically identified. We have collected and analyzed events that can take place in public places, using this to form three basic scenarios from which a multitude of other compositions can be generated. Such scenarios consist of specially designed elements which work together as an urban furniture family.  With this, Revival supports a more intuitive use of the urban space, while enhancing mobility and social interaction. Revival is accessible to everyone.