“It has been an honor and a pleasure to represent the company and Guatemala,” says Manuel Mansylla, who shared with Prensa Libre how the innovation that these days participates in the New York by Design contest emerged, which for now seeks to win in a vote public.
You can vote, no later than Saturday, for Fast Casual de Fantástica on the website of New York by Design.
As a result of the pandemic, restaurants had to take the dining rooms out onto the street and used parking spaces to accommodate them, so with their company Fantástica they thought of a durable, reusable, safe solution that would provide a good experience for the operator and its consumers, Mansilla says.
They saw an opportunity in the midst of crisis, in times that have been of darkness for everyone everywhere.
Fast Casual is a piece of furniture consisting of a line of modular, functional, safe and advanced design toolkits that can be installed in less than a day, manufactured under city regulations and responding to current needs.
Mansylla says that it all started when a community agency (the equivalent of an assistant mayor) in Times Square, in the theater district in New York, invited them to place one of their facilities in Times Square. There they launched the brand and the product. This installation stayed there as a demonstration.
Coincidentally, they were filming a New York by Design TV show that had been postponed by the pandemic and that transformed the topic from general innovation to innovation as a result of COVID-19.
They saw the concept of Fast Casual, which defines a new normal, and that’s how they came to the contest. These shows are part of a reality show that currently airs on a local US channel but will hit Amazon Prime in February, Mansylla said.
Mansylla’s work has consisted of interventions in public spaces to improve spaces in communities that do not have access to them, with small parks called “pocket public spaces”. He is an expert in placemaking, tactical urban planning and has worked in the private and public sectors.
The pandemic will leave us with some positive changes that will define the new normal, such as cities revolving around pedestrians, says Manuel Mansylla, who says “many aspects of life are going to be better, such as crowds and cultural issues, things that perhaps before we didn’t question ourselves. With a better structure it will be more enjoyable despite all the difficulties ”.
- Architect graduated from Francisco Marroquín University
- He has lived in New York for 15 years.
- He studied his master’s degree in Urban Design in New York.
- He developed his career in New York and in 2008 he founded Fantastica.
- Expert in tactical urban planning.
* With information from Prensa Libre.
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