A GAME OF
S PAT I A L M E M O R I E S
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“What would be the use in giving the plan of the room that was really my room, in describing the little room at the end of the garret, in saying that from the window, across the indentations of the roofs, one could see the hill. I alone, in my memories of another century, can open the deep cupboard that still retains for me alone that unique odour.... the reader, back in his own room, would not open that unique wardrobe with it’s unique smell, which is the signature of intimacy” Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, pp. 13,14
The intention for this project was to create a participatory creative research method through the use of a board game. Once completed the board game creates a foundations for a conceptual framework of a house that will be inhabited by the players of the game. The central theme of this method is focused on addressing this issue highlighted above in Bachelard’s work; the inability to access the intangible perceptual phenomena that others possess through their own experiences. This raises the question; how can we, as architects begin to align ourselves with these thoughts without being metaphysically intrusive? The game also addresses several other design issues such as the ability to change the standard and routinely un-personal way in which architects interact with clients. Through personalising a project such as this the architect, or researcher has the ability to access a representative measure of the clients personal thoughts and wishes that would otherwise not arise with a faceto-face encounter across the boardroom table.
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For an architect The Game of Spatial Memories acts as a vessel through which he or she is able to form a narrative by collecting the memories, thoughts, and daydreams of the players. These thoughts, all of which are written on the cards are collected as random glimpses into the consciousness of each player and act as tools for the architect. As they are gathered and the data is analysed we begin breaking down the phenomenological boundaries between the architect and client as we align ourselves with their worldview. The game will be delivered to the client’s current address upon an agreement between a client and the architect. Once the game is unpacked it is to be played in a leisurely manor as there is no time limit or restrictions and the players can choose to take there turn when they desire. It is advisable that the game should not be played in a single sitting, as the players should only be ready to commit to their turn when they are in an adequate mood to do so. This mood is a sense of relaxation and free from distractions as so to allow ones mind to focus on the inner thoughts that would make this game a more successful exercise. One of the few compulsory requirements is the participation of all eventual inhabitants of the future house as it is intended to be shared exercise in personal thought. This in turn means that all the players do not need to be present when each person takes their turn. The game is not intended to have a winner or losers but instead, upon completion the players have had the opportunity to take themselves through a meditative process of exploring and recalling their fondest of thoughts. When the game has been filled with the entire deck of cards it is complete and the cards are to be collected by the architect. It does not matter what order the cards are in once the game has finished as the architect will read through the stack in a random order and will begin the process of creating a strong psycho-architectural narrative in which a new yet familiar house will be built.
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Each player will choose a card colour and than organize the card deck so that each colour comes one after another, these colours are repeated in the same order throughout the deck as so to ensure that each player will know whose turn it is.
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Yellow
Red
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The player must then place the card in one of the slits behind the slot.
Blue Orange 3
I N S T R U C T I O N S
Green
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One after another, each player will turn the pointer using the knob at the top.
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Once the pointer has landed on a memory slot the player must read what is said in the slot. Then the player must write a thought, memory, or daydream relating to that slot on one of the
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This will be repeated until all the slots are filled. If a specific slot has been filled with spatial memory cards you must place a cover insert over the memory slot. If the pointer lands on a memory slot with a cover, the player follows the arrow to the right until you reach a spatial memory slot that has not been filled.
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Once all the slits have been filled and all the slot covers are on the board the game has finished and should be returned to the architect.
Co-design and co-research are comparatively new methods of researching into a given subject area with respect to the various other, more commonplace methods that are available to researchers. Regardless of this it is becoming a central method in the way designers go about making a product for an intended user. This acceptance to dismiss control and let people who lack formal design initiative participate in the design has allowed for the creation of products for “what people need” rather than what designers think people need. (N. Sanders & P.J. Stappers, 2008)
description of the “fuzzy” left part of the graph named “design criteria” or more formally called ‘pre-design’ highlights the various activities required to inform the exploration of a research question. In this case the research question is how should architects go about designing a house? However I believe that The Game of Spatial Memories addresses the way co-design is made from a differing perspective. First of which is the use of the word ‘pre-deign’. In the case of the game this stage is not pre-deigning but a metaphysical ‘conceptual design’. This therefore changes the typical ‘concept’ section to constructing a concept in the physical atmospheres of building a house.
In “Co-creation and the New landscape of Design” Sanders & Stappers show a graph (Fig. 1) that depicts a representation of a co-designing process. Their
Design criteria Ideas
Fuzzy front end
Concept Prototype
The second alteration the co-design process addresses the ‘fuzzy’ front end. The intention of the game is to reduce the amount of ‘fuzziness’ through creating a method of data collection that allows the architect to focus in on exactly what information is required for the task of making a house. These adjustments in the way co-design is done are reinforced by the underlying certainty that the users or participants know they want a house, and the architect knows how to build a house. Therefore the game addresses the process of how the architect begins to understand what the users wants a house to be as opposed to the architect telling the users what type of house they should live in. It also avoids issues such as misinterpretations through attempting to describe certain phenomena that the users want the house to consist of.
Product
Fig. 1
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Depicted above is a series of photographs showing the progression of the game whilst it is being played. These are taken over several days when the members of the household are present for their turn. As the game begins the craftsmanship of the board game is clearly present in its aesthetic such as the black circumference and Colum contrasted by the wood tones and copper pointer. As the game is played the cards begin to take up spaces in the board, each turn adding small rectangles of colour to an otherwise unsaturated board-scape. Once the game as progresses further the cards slowly take over the board, adding large sections of overlaid colours. a sense of individuality is now taking root in the game itself. When the game is complete the board has been overtaken by a wall of colour, creating a highly contrasted image from the first turn of the pointer. The cards have become the product and the board of the game is therefor redundant. What is left is a colourful chart of individual thoughts, raw memory data yet to be composed into the poetic of a house.
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M E M O R Y DATA
COMFORT
LIGHT
SOUND
ALONE
Stretched out upon textured surfaces. Wrapped, entombed, and cocooned in the warmth of others present. The unravelling of tensions of the day to day and celebrations in the freedom of personal space.
A warm ambience of light, small specks of brilliant, glowing embers lighting the corners of darkness. Subtle hues of multicoloured auroras passing through spatial corridors. Sitting in the late evening glow of a vermillion sky.
Resonating acoustics and reverberating echoes of melancholic hymns. The early waking of birdsong summoning the arrival of light and awareness. Metallic shrills of activity and purpose, the homely summoning of togetherness.
An independent retreat into the personal recesses of space. Individual corners of territory guarded by property and selfreflection where the mind is at one with itself. A silent wellbeing, focusless and empty.
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