Designing Playful spaces
We all are playful in nature. Every living thing on this planet is playful in its own way. Sometimes we approve of it and sometime we do just the opposite. As Architecture students, we are- in our semesters, asked to design such spaces.
For example:Fast food courts like Mc.Donald’s store, Kids’ shopping center,An Elementary school, Creche etc,. The primary objective here is to design playful spaces. Spaces that reflect and demonstrate the expression of human joy, fun, decoration, form and other shapes that represent playfulness. To showcase these we often experiment with forms, shapes, sizes, scale, color, textures, light, shadow, heights, elements(like unusual installations), landscaping etc.
Like in the below given image. A swing is installed at a bus-stop to make it a playful space.
Or A bouncing bench.
The ideas are endless. Only limited to human imagination.
It takes quite a lot of time to realize and completely understand the weightage of the term that we are dealing with, in creating spaces that are for now-hypothetical but tomorrow-will be facing the warmth of the sun. The impact of our creation is going to be much more hard hitting. Hence this calls for realistic design and implementation because obviously the stakes will be riding high and risks are averted.
A well designed playful space should successfully:
- Relieve tension and stress.
- Elevate the mood of the user.
- Enhance creativity, thus increases problem-solving ability.
- Provide a quick energy boost for the user.
But more importantly, the space is aimed to bring people together, out of the cube farm and appreciate the simple joys of being able to effectively communicate with the fellow human beings.
It is not a new theory that mutual laughter and play are an essential component of strong, productive and healthy relationships. By making a conscious effort to incorporate more humor and play into our daily interactive spaces, one can improve the quality of one-to-one relationships— as well as enhance connections with co-workers, family members, and friends.
