Page 68 - Designing Ways 242

ALL ABOUT
FABRICS
ART

within our urban development. The
studio was recently selected as the winner
of the 2021 Architizer A+ Firm of the
Year Award for Small Projects as well as
the 2020 ArchDaily Best Young Practice.
Through receiving these accolades, their
work promotes an acceleration in the
appreciation and understanding of the
value of implementing more play within
our changing cities and communities.
This work is paving the way for city
stakeholders, urban designers, architects,
and more, to start exploring the idea of
becoming a “Playable City,” an ecosystem
of playable opportunities intertwined
within the existing urban infrastructure
that doesn’t just disrupt our daily lives
but adds to it. Looking at opportunities
that explore how play can start to exist in
everyday spaces, and begin to encourage
people to think about these spaces that
could become PLAYcs: like a crosswalk,
laundromat, public park bench, street
light, or just the everyday spaces in-
between.
Investigating how these often boring
or underutilised situations can turn into
inclusive, stimulating, creative outlets,
bringing people together within the built
environment.

Highlighted Project Descriptions
Project 01: Oscillation
Oscillation is an interactive installation
that focuses on using sight, sound, and
movement to spark spontaneous social
Project 1: Oscillation in New York City utilising sight, sound, and movement to spark interaction and conversation within a once
spontaneous social interactions and conversations within a once underutilised plaza. underutilised space. The piece consists of
Photo credit: Savannah Lauren five parts that are deconstructed from a
solid cube using a Voronoi algorithm.
Each of these units acts somewhat like
he impact of play is often a giant Theremin, a musical instrument
disregarded and undervalued that you can play without touching.
Tin the discussions around As you walk toward the piece, it plays
A Design Studio architecture, urban development, and different sounds and pitches depending
city change. The Urban Conga’s work is on your distance to it. As you move and
Showcasing the highlighting the impact play can have on dance around the piece, colours reflect
the health, identity, social, and economic and refract light differently, based on your
Value of Play. values within the future development angle and position to the work. The work
of our cities and communities. Play is becomes an open-ended invitation for
The Urban Conga. universal and should be utilized as a people to play, dance, jam out, and come
vital part of the movement forward in together as a community in public space.
reactivating our communal public spaces The piece was designed as modular pieces
New York, United States to become more inclusive, safe, and so the work can travel and activate new
healthier places. and unique underutilised spaces around
The Urban Conga’s work showcases a the world.
variety of ways this can start to be explored

68 Issue 242 • dw