Weaponized Playscapes

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2013/08/playground-built-keep-sex-offenders-bay/6685/

A Great set of Play interventions, and a great attitude about public space!

hey playscapers!
it is my birthday! 
come help me celebrate finishing school AND being soooo old... 
tonight at 8:30 frankford hall!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/fashion/gyms-move-from-machines-to-fitness-playgrounds.html?src=recg&_r=0

PLAYSCAPES GOES INTERNATIONAL...in case you arent ready to drop the mic

competition announced:

http://www.buildingtrustinternational.org/competition.html

http://www.buildingtrustinternational.org/PLAYbrief.pdf

PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE

William H. Whyte: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - The Street Corner

if you haven't seen this, it is a great short film about public space and what makes small spaces successful... stuff about water, seating, sun, people watching, play, adventure playgrounds...

PLAYING THE THRESHOLD / THRESHOLD OF PLAY

I am attempting to bundle highly performative stormwater infrastructure to incremental operations for play. (please see bottom of post for indications of the living infrastructural systems I am referring to, largely bioretention / biofiltration / catchment schemes.)
These are essentially concept sketches, but they are attempting to begin intervention on two fronts; manipulation of the ground plane (to effect a more playful and performative topography) and the development of a vocabulary for aerial constructs / anchors that aggregate to form giant swings, seats, outlooks, and shade canopies. I have identified 5 sites to test different dimensions of these maneuvers, towards a more sublime playtime that generates a network of interventions for various constituencies along the corridor.
The pink represents bamboo, which I intend to test out as a stormwater basin crop to provide quickly growing, harvestable material, which can then be deployed in conjunction with steel and concrete to yield / reinforce these play sculptures.

These are some basic precedents for green stormwater infrastructure that I am adapting to deploy in a variety of situations along N American (from VA stormwater 2011 BMPs)

 

Progress- a toolkit of known and unknown parts

What are the play spaces in our cities? - Streets, plazas, parks, lawns, terraces, rooftops, campuses, empty lots, bars, clubs, porches ??

Why didn’t we see anyone playing on North American Street?

Does play need to take place in a pocket of safety?

Somewhere where one is are comfortable, at ease?

PART 1: THE IDEA

A MANIFESTO:

Create a playscape environment  that is specific to a place and speaks to the needs of the area, something that responds to the needs of the people. Let play mean something in plush suburban neighborhoods, and something other in the compact busy inner city, something entirely new in degrading urban pockets such as North American Street.

This playscape will manifest itself as a space that is known, secure- a place to be at ease.

This will be no sterile zone however.

Play is as much about the unknown as it is about the unknown.

Built on the germinal framework of the known, familiar, or ‘at-ease’ elements, A grid of the unknown is built upwards, rising into the sky.

Players can rise and fall into this grid, touching summits as they walk, climb, and search.

A mesh of summits will allow people to navigate from the known to the unknown.

FOR THE CITY...

Develop a system of existing elements or points-summits, that can become springing boards for new attachments and play pockets that can appear where they are needed - places of ease, and places of the unknown. Places of play.

This tool kits are to be specific to particular neighborhoods and urban conditions, as will the resulting play spaces.

PART 2:  COMPARATIVE SITES

GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENTS:

Summit-space will respond to 2 or three diverse conditions in Philadelphia, to understand what elements in existing environments can be stretched out, pushed to their limits to maximize how play can fulfill needs.

The biggest test lot of these will be North American Street, with its own unique conditions. Two connected sites on North American Street have been chosen to be able to maximize their future growth into and beyond each other.

Another test lot could be Rittenhouse Square, in the city’s most affluent neighborhood, where living conditions and lifestyles are dramatically different.

TIME

How long will these Summit Spaces survive? or How long will they live?

As long as residents want them to. When the neighborhood changes, elements in the system can be detached, replaced and changed. The surface germinal points remain more permanent, but can be changed as well over time. They are elements of the city, pulled into the summit-space and like the city changes, they will change to. A SEMI-TEMPORAL QUALITY.

PART 3: STRATEGY

LAYERS!! A three

LAYER 1. GERMINAL ELEMENTS- existing elements on site and around , drawn out, based on their potential and ability to trigger play

CONFIGURATIONS/ COLLAGES OF:

1. PATHS

2. MOUNTS

3. SUPER STRUCTURES

4. LOW BARRIERS/ BOUNDARIES

5. STEPS

6. LOW-STAGES

7. PERFORMANCE SPACES

8. CLEARINGS

9. POLES

10. TREES

LAYER 2. SUMMITS- ATTACHABLE.

Light weight, flexible, attachable, movable- connecting players to points within the play scape.

Material potentials- above

LAYER 3: ENTIRELY UNKNOWN PLAY SPACES

New Unexpected materials,, rough- textured, inviting play.

Unknown jump off points, into other spaces

PART 4: IDENTIFYING GERMINAL ELEMENTS ON SITE

Identifying the' Mounts', 'stages', 'paths', 'borders',  'clearings' on site. To draw them out further.

PART 5: STRETCH OUT THE EXISTING GERMINAL ELEMENTS

PART 6: BEGIN TO TWEAK GERMINAL ELEMENTS, ALLOWING ACCESS TO THEIR INHERENT PLAY

PART 7: BRING IN LAYER 2 SUMMITS- INCREASING ACCESS TO GERMINAL ELEMENTS- SPRINGBOARS

toy stories

 these kiddos from around the world were photographed with their favorite toys in a series called Toy Stories by Gabriele Galimberti. Click links at the bottom to read more. 

http://www.featureshoot.com/2013/03/photos-of-children-from-around-the-world-with-their-most-prized-possessions/

http://www.gabrielegalimberti.com/projects/toys-2/#

OVERALL STRATEGY: 

-DONATED OR SALVAGED MATERIALS (FOR THESE DIAGRAMS: 1000 RAIN BARRELS, 100 TREE BOXES

                                                              6 FLATBED RAIL CARS, 1000 LINEAR FEET CHAIN LINK FENCE,

                                                              1 18 WHEELER TURN RADIUS)

-REACTIVATE RAIL ALONG N.AMERICAN

-ACTIVATE NORTH AND SOUTH SITES. LOTS IN BETWEEN CAN BE USED WHEN THERE IS EXCESS

 MATERIALS 

-LOCALS CAN TAKE MATERIAL FROM THE SITE AS LONG AS THEY CONTRIBUTE LABOR, MATERIAL, OR  

 CREATIVITY/ENTERTAINMENT TO THE SITE.  THIS WILL ENSURE FLUX IN MATERIAL.

-STORAGE SPACE (THINK KOOLHAAS IN LAGOS) AND URBAN MATS (THINK WEST 8 SCHOUBURGPLEIN)

-BIG INTERVENTIONS.  POOR NEIGHBORHOODS ARE NOT SEEN ENOUGH.  VISIBILITY 

 IS KEY

THE LAST 3 SLIDES (CENTER DIFFUSE) SHOW THE PREFERRED STRATEGY. ALTHOUGH THE SLIDES LOOK LIKE DISCRETE PHASES, THEY WILL INTERACT AS NUANCE IS ADDED TO THE PROJECT.  GOING FORWARD, THE MODEL LOGICS SHOWN IN THE ABOVE SLIDE WILL BEGIN TO MOVE THE MATERIAL AND GIVE IT NEW ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS

SAME TEXT AS ABOVE, BUT FOR THE NORTH SITE.