BoomBooks
Quito, Ecuador
Type: Cultural
Status: Completed, 2018
From a survey done by the National census and statistic institute of Ecuador (INEC), the average Ecuadorian reads 1-2 hours a week. This is less than 1/4 the time spent reading by the average human in the world. Such staggering numbers are a direct reflection in the development of culture and economy in the country. By starting the BoomBooks initiative, we, at odd+ want to sprout self-education and improvement by generating reading culture in principal and secondary cities in Ecuador.
odd+ believes that the act of reading and self-education is an essential component of cultural and intellectual development in humans. Self-education generates curiosity and a critical mindset. It also helps humans interact with each other through various interesting topics of conversation. Our BoomBooks initiative offers micro activation to existing public spaces for such interactions.
The structure is composed of adult/children reading boxes, seating and resting surfaces, and planters for greening the urban space. It is a multifunctional public structure that will activate unused public spaces in cities where private space has been the predominant axis of urban development and public space has been forgotten. Given the municipal economic constraints and lack of sponsorship for this type of projects, we have decided to embark on the project independently in order to create a model for the city to follow.