Here, designers’ capacity to combine systemic thinking with the specificities of an urban milieu promise to open up new perspectives for saving the post. ![]() In the context of recent postal reform legislation which stipulates priority for more state and local partners-as well as the ability to consider non-traditional partnerships which augment core-postal services, the time is right to bridge a place and postal divide. Urban and rural Americans, the young and the old, residents and businesses, the healthy and the disabled, the well-off and the disadvantaged-all have different expectations of the post.īut despite the post’s ubiquitous physical presence and distribution capability, there is no meaningful process to engage with local place-based revitalization, economic development or smart city initiatives. Thus, even a short consideration of the post office’s role in community foregrounds the difficulty of setting postal policy for the nation as a whole. No wonder that of the 3,700 unprofitable facilities the postmaster general proposed shutting down in 2011, only about 140 were actually terminated. Thus, beyond its logistic operation, the post assumes an important civic role at the gain of local neighborhood communities: the mail carrier as a neighborhood watch, or the postal service’s role in re-establishing contact with populations after natural disasters. Particularly in rural (and often red) areas, the social benefits of the postal service seem to outweigh prioritizing cost-efficiency. While some voices advocate for its privatization, the postal question does not divide along traditional party lines. Accordingly, any debate about future postal services takes place in the context of much broader questions about the value of government itself. Unlike other federal services and infrastructures, the post assumes financial self-sufficiency and does not benefit from tax subsidies, but is meanwhile constrained by a universal service obligation and congressional oversight. The Internet reduced first-class mail volume significantly, but also increased that of packages by 50 percent between 20, making the postal service a cornerstone of America’s e-commerce marketplace. But the postal domain is rapidly changing and under tremendous pressure to reinvent itself. Here there are no hidden privacy policies or personal data breaches. Winifred Gallagher argues that the postal services created America as “the incubator of our uniquely lively, disputatious culture of innovative ideas and uncensored opinions.” 1ĭespite today’s ubiquitous connectivity, the postal mailbox remains the most reliable and trustworthy portal to the world. Connecting 150 million households almost every day, the postal network has been America’s central nervous system binding the nation together for over two centuries - ever since Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general in 1775. The postal service is one of the few American institutions, public or private, in which communities are treated equally. The world and everything it has to offer is literally at our fingertips. ![]() “The game’s on, you’re not leaving your couch”, yetĪnother email from GrubHub promises. Tools and methodologies? What is the relevance of the Manual processes are being abandoned for digital Where the physicality of the mailbox and associated How can the timeless pursuit of knowledge, discourse andĪrchitecture adapt in an increasingly intangible world What we can do to stay relevant post-postbox. Less aware we become of the complex networks tying itĪs a group that relies heavily on print to achieve our Yet, in a strange way, the more knowledge we gain about the world, the One-click access to every product, service and idea being the essence of the way we live. ‘Postbox’ acknowledges the ever-shrinking functionalĭistance between worlds that were once far apart, with Generations to contemplate Pynchons postal futures. Outsped Thurn and Taxis and the Trystero, leaving older More than a 10th of the annual revenue of the postalĢ Their practicality ever dwindling, lettersĪnd stamps become commemorative icons - we’ve We consider it a relegation or acension, that the onceĬommon and utilitarian stamp is now an antique worth Magenta is the world’s most valuable stamp.1 Post Office? Would you ever choose to receive a paperĬheck in the mail if Direct Deposit (or better yet, Venmo) When was the last time you wrote a friend a letter? Or received one? Or even hand-delivered a package to the mission, discussing relationships and implications of an infrastructure shifting from physical to digital. ![]() we only dream the night before tomorrow.
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