Public Utility Challenge: Innovate Payphones

Public Utility Challenge is launching the Innovate PayPhones challenge to reinvent the traditional street payphone, with the aim to make cities more accessible, healthier, and safer while enhancing user experience for residents and visitors alike. Students and professionals in design, technology, and architecture are invited to participate.

BFI will serve on the judging panel for this challenge. The deadline for submissions is June 23rd, 2016 at 5pm EST. Winners will be announced on August 29th, 2016.

From the organizers: “Once imperative street furnishings of cities around the world, the payphone has gone from a necessary public utility to a languishing archaic public feature, whose purpose, utility and value has been called into question over the past several decades. The archaic payphone has been the primary means of communication in times of severe crisis and emergency (such as Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina) providing invaluable utility to all that need it. They are a public good, providing unlimited communication to people regardless of income and background, while serving as a key asset to a cities and their visitors in the forms of advertising, information and connectivity. This got us thinking.”

“We are looking for an innovative solution that couples a rich and dynamic urban environment with an attractive and effective design. We are open to any ideas that will enhance municipality way of life, making it as convenient and relevant as possible – the sky is the limit.”

For details on the features that should be integrated into a submission, click here. Submission deliverables and the judging criteria are listed here.

To enter the Public Utility Challenge by June 23rd, 2016, click here.