Lightbox is an urban design concept we did for Deutsche Telekom, which is presented at the 

"Kontakthof". The lightbox enables a new way of communication between city and inhabitant. 

Installed on footpaths it informs pedestrians on relevant informations of it’s direct environment, 

e.g. best public transportation options, air quality and use of electricity in the neighbourhood. 

During nighttime the lightbox breathes slowly and supports people on their way, changing 

color and speed of pulse depending on time and amount of traffic.

The lightbox has two main functionalities: light up public space according to time of the day, 

frequency of pedestrians on the street and other parameters. The breathing light creates the 

feeling of the pulse of a city and displays its heartbeat throughout day and night. An interface 

on the sides of lightbox displays location-based informations for people walking by including

tourists, residents as well as children or older generations without the access to smart devices 

that offer these informations. Thereby we aim to connect people in a new way by giving them 

informations about local hotspots, sights or news to get a better feeling about what's going on 

in their neighbourhood. While the current version has no direct value for residents our redesign 

aims to bring city and surroundings closer together. With our redesign we aim to give the MFG

Box a broader functionality and contribute to a better life quality in future smart cities, that 

focuses on people.

Our Smartphone accompanies us every day and has the possibility to display us an incredibly 

wide range of informations. In contrast, screens in public spaces and cities usually show static 

informations, advertisement or public transport feeds through LED panels. The digital revolution 

did not take place in urban structures of germany despite few exceptions. The lightbox is there-

fore a way to inform people on subjects that are relevant for everybody in their current situation 

and location. So there is no need to obtain these from private smartphones. Furthermore the 

light box is a new way for a communication between governmental services and the residents 

of a city. Truely location based Informations can become an efficient way to address a specific 

part of a city and their inhabitants concerning specified informations, feeds or recent problems. 

Showing the energy consumption for a specific street can create a competition between their 

residents so that wastage can be reduced.we believe that location based information may 

bring residents closer together, and strengthen solidarity and communities in neighbourhoods.

In a cooperation with Deutsche Telekom and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam with 

the goal of creating a permanent exhibition for the “Kontakthof”, an exhibition and conference 

space at Telekom Innovation Arena in Berlin. Our course, supervised by Prof. Frank Heidmann 

and Prof. Constanze Langer developed an exhibition concept which includes projects of third 

party companies and startups as well as our exhibits. The creation of lightbox started with the 

request of the Telekom asking for a redesign of the MFG-Box (Multifunctional Case) which is 

used by Internet Providers to provide telecommunication services to the surrounding area. As 

a german resident, these boxes are as usual to see as a streetlight. So our concept would be 

spread across a variety of cities and would reach many people.