Design by nature: Post/Post

At university we were set a collaborative brief called 'Design by nature', by taking natural process and fusing it with a public space to improve it.

Process: Symbiosis
Public space: Postbox

Our conclusion of postboxes:
- Posting stuff takes too long
- Stamps are too far away from the postbox
- Stamps are outdated

From here our work split into two segments,
- Revising how a stamp could work to fit our modern needs
- Giving postboxes more uses

postpost post Postbox community symbiosis Nature mail

We started by looking at the three types of symbiosis; Parasitism, Mutualism & Commensalism.

When we were given the option to look into Postboxes we began by creating a moodboard of everything wrong with them so that we can create a Symbiotic solution to the biggest problem we found.

We began by looking into the amount of time one would have to spend when sending a letter from scratch. This experiment consumed almost an hour from start to finish.

Also from this experiment we decided that stamps were too far from the post box. It felt weird that to utilise a post box you have to go elsewhere first to buy a necessery ingredient in the process. From this information I designed an attachment to latch onto the back on a postbox ( like a parasite) that dispensed stamps.

Early concept for the stamp dispenser.

From the simple sketch we created a model out of blue-tac to get a sense of scale.

Photographed the model along side an actual postbox.

At this point we approached a tutor for advice and feedback to make sure we're heading in the right direction. Up till this point we were working towards what is possible to create in the modern day, abiding by laws etc. When talking to our tutor she suggested we release ourselves from the restrictions and create something vastly more ambitious with our idea.

So we did exactly that. This is a model created by Jochen V. where we increased the scale of the postbox by ateast 6x, this allowed more space for us to utilise.

Going into Cinema4D I managed to create a 3D model, the design has four features. On side one we have the stamp dispenser.

on the second side we have a parcel storage locker, the idea behind this is to save money on postage by sending a parcel to their local post box, this option is great for people work during the day and are unable to have things signed for.

The third side features a community moodboard, people could utilise this by posting local ads and community events.

The final side to our design is an updated version of the postbox concept, the difference we've made is the postbox will now accept small, large parcels & scales for weighing your items.