great design....  

I LOVE the piano stairs.
Thanks for posting this--

I think there is a big elemen...
I think there is a big element of play in what the form chasers do, the Newsons and Hadids must sit in front of the computer or in the studio and experiment. I once saw an engineer sitting cross legged on the floor looking for all the world like a 2 year with his model, it was delightful.
I can appreciate the video examples (somewhere there is a park railing that plays 'the girl from Ipanima' as you drag a stick across it) but would find the extra noise an irritation, no doubt urban dwellers are less affected by such things, but wonder why at the root of it public education programmes to improve behaviours havn't worked, is it becuase we're just lazy? And need to be entertained ALL the time, even when doing the most basic thing?
In order to work I think they would need to be moved from place to place or made inactive at various times, the novelty might wear thin or simply become invisible.

Heath...not lazy, just...
Heath...not lazy, just apathetic or indifferent as it's someone else's problem (not my problem, someone will pick up after me). Fun indeed...but doesn't this count as bribery instead of actually modifying behaviors. What happens when this entertainment is removed? Back to business as usual? All likelyhood...yes. Wouldn't it be better to consider good design as one that solves problems...not displaces or pacify it?

Well, I laughed and smiled
-- so it even has a second-hand value -- the opposite of (say) second-hand smoke ?
"What happens when this entertainment is removed? Back to business as usual? All likelyhood...yes." Are you sure ?
I just don't see a down-side, here. Thanks for the inspiration -- and the smile !

why....
?should it be removed? Why would we not put some permanent joy in climbing the stairs? Well I know a few reasons. I doubt that the sound system works without power;I doubt that it is wear proof and that it does not require more maintenance than the escalator. No, it is not perfect but it is a small step toward understanding that we can not just make things that function and than rationally convince people that it is the right way to do. New technology allows us to think about stairs as a key board, or a garbage bin as a bottomless pit, and a recycling bin as an arcade machine. Of course it is not perfect but it is showing the right direction. Haven't we come a long way in combining the vital need for food with gastronomical pleasure? Why not do it with other vital things. At least nobody is taking it too seriously, something that can not be said about the brutalist Vitra dealer...

really? Perhaps I'm a...
really? Perhaps I'm a natural grump, but if that stair piano had been installed in the train station I lived near once the last thing I'd want to hear at the end of the working day are 15 delighted tourists making a cacophony.
I'm a rural creature by nature but surely even the the most hardened urbanist would prefer a calmer and quiter city?

I find it ironic that in the...
I find it ironic that in the video for The Worlds Deepest Bin", the first group of people conversed about the bin in sign language. One woman spelling out b-o-m-b (shhhhh, can't say that word in post 9-11 America). Isn't it also ironic to hear sounds of bombs in a peaceful serene park?
Onward....
Positive reinforcement is a great thing. Parents do it all the time, as do Politicians, Employers, Wives...etc.
I didn't say they should be removed, but raised a serious question of cause and effect. That is, prior to the funtheory fix, littering and neglectful recycling were an issue. Apply the funtheory fix, problem solved. Then remove the funtheory fix, and back to business as usual?
I think a few will "get it", but others will return to poor habits. The real solution is preventing the poor habits in the first place. In the case of the trash bin, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the reward not seeing tumbleweed trash laying about the ground? I not confident the funtheory fix is a viable long term solution....but merely a temporary novelty. Yes it's entertaining, but like Heath, I ask....all the time and for every mundane activity? Will funtheory fix eventually have to upgrade to orgasm rewards? Will we be faced with riots and social upheavals if we're don't get our funtheory fix allotments? Perhaps funtheory fixes are a step towards self realizaton or subliminal education...but I wouldn't put money on that.
I do like the Piano staircase! Perfect application as temporary entertainment. Eventually regular users will get lazy again and revert to the escalator. My main qualm is those who can't climb stairs are left alone....a long lonely upward journey while watching and hearing those abled-bodied storm up a racket with horribly executed glissandos. On that...Heath and I would make great neighbors.

I felt really glad after...
I felt really glad after reading Koen's opinion that started this thread. I finished my design studies recently, and the feeling I have, while browsing through very many blogs, is that there are just so many creative people with creative ideas all around, that don't find its way to real people.
And design should not be just about one-off pieces and luxury minimalism.
Most people spend every day moving from home to work and back. Some of them using public transport, long boring corridors for getting to metro (now.. spending some time in Bangkok, I know what I'm talking about :). These areas look just so human-unfriendly. I'm just wondering how security stuff working there can feel after whole day.
Next thing... as Donald Norman in his book "emotional design" wrote, if design makes you happy, it makes you also more open-minded... more creative in solving problems. That's why good looking design that has doesn't work perfect can be more popular than ugly but functional one.
Let's put these two things together. People after whole day of work, need to spend some more time walking in boring corridors, they can easily get apathetic, frustrated, coming home in bad mood.. But some creative impulse (such as keyboard on steps) can make their day more interesting.. bringing some positive thoughts.. maybe even inspiring 🙂 maybe also on their way to work.
And moreover, people feeling that positive are more open to talk with each other, it can initiate some interaction, street talk, being more open to outside world.
And yeah, I know I?m just a naïve young designer.
But I?m happy to be one 🙂

Koen...
This is a fascinating video in many respects.
Foremost, it shows how persons can be stimulated into curiosity, playfulness, and use of things that design infuses with interactivity...even a staircase.
I have always felt the stimulation of interactivity was the great, underlying lesson to be learned from the internet, not that everything can be reduced to 1s and 0s.
Put a user friendly, interface (and GUI is not the final word on this either) on the internet and human beings can't help but be delighted to use the internet and its content.
This piano staircase, sort of a first degree freedom design of the stair case, also brings into focus the potential for second degree freedom design to make use of feedback loops in humane ways.
What if above a piano stair case there was a flat screen encouraging karaoke, too? 🙂
For me, this piano stair case has the same quality of joy that Renzo Piano introduced into his California Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco. It is engineered functionalism with a human heart. No robot with artificial intelligence, not auteur seeking to make an artistic statement, no bureaucrat/bean counter looking only at the bottom line, could have designed this, or required the design of this. Human beings designed the piano stair case. Human beings with a knowledge of the arts, and the past, and the playfulness and functionality of human creativity, as distinguished from "Art" with a capital A.

seriously?
As a temporary ...
seriously?
As a temporary installation, Piano Staircase is a wonderful draw. Perhaps as part of Mozarts birthday celebration? As a long term installation in a high use public facility...very counter productive..in an extreme case, perhaps even dangerous. I'm surprised at the level of support this is garnering by usually critical DA's. Yes, the concept is great and thought provoking...yes adding fun to the equation can be an improvement, but the lack of foresight is what I find highly unusual.
Is there a relationship we not being made aware of? Perhaps some are being hypnotized by cuteness?
I'm off to have some fun.

one thing that really worries me..
Although I'm a big fan of urban-interactions and I always want to bring design nearer to real people, I read today about competition Index-award that was exhibited in Brno / Czech republic / in the old town... and it was damaged by some vandals.. even one piece was stolen.
Hm.. makes me feel really sad.

WoofWoof...
You make a fair point. This sort of design could easily be taken too far, if it turned our cities into an amusement park, though our mostly dreary cities in America certainly could migrate a long ways in this direction before it became oppressive IMHO.
Why I think this piano stair case is significant is this: a piano stair case can induce people to use their own locomotion, instead of that of an escalator. This is remarkable. Of course, familiarity might make the preference for the piano stair case trend quickly to zero. Still, it is worth testing to see if the effect dilutes and vanishes, or persists. I recall in the early stages of internet mania, some said people would lose interest in the net, so we shouldn't sink a lot of cost in developing the infrastructure for the net. Ya never know about human's interacting with technology without some sensible period of observation.