Mailville proposes an interactive way-finding and a rebranding project that involves multiple kiosks throughout Harlem and a central hub under the 125th subway station. The booths in the area lead to a mutual understanding between different parties from different background. Augmented reality is the technique for collecting memories and stories that can be shared and stored through a central hub. Overall, Mailville turns memories into stories.

Mailville is a collaborative project with Bhawika Mishra, as the researcher and the content developer, Xuewei Jiang, as the concept and design developer, and myself as the creative director. As the team named this is how WE work, we held an in-depth audience and location research, including interviews with locals, site surveys, and academic–level research.

The mission is to showcase the history of the neighborhood; create a communication web that allows people to share rich stories and new developments; create a new perspective and mutual understanding among many different groups that live in Manhattanville. The goal is to create an interactive way-finding and a rebranding system that fits the cultural context. The location is the Columbia University Manhattanville Campus, the cross section of 125th Street and Broadway Avenue. The audience is the local dwellers who have been living in the area for generations; the new flux of people that are mostly related to Columbia University. The inspiration is the rich history of Manhattanville and the new buildings designed by Renzo Piano. The logo is on the left.

The first component, which are the kiosks will be the areas in which the residents can either read stories about particular locations around the structure or share what is on their mind. The second component, which is the central hub below the elevated train track, will be the area which will be utilized as a center for sharing personal stories about specific locations or to read what the people around have sent out from the kiosks. In short, in kiosks, people will mail their thoughts to the central hub or learn about the history of particular historical elements. At the central hub, people will see the incoming mail from the kiosks of send out their history to the kiosks.