City of Play by aya maceda

A2 — GETTING LOST

B1—DIVERSION Speed Analysis of Flatiron Plaza

Urban Analysis DIVERSION People tend to walk in paths that carve out underutilized triangular voids. Triangular temporal void spaces are new territories to inject activators within public pedestrian plazas. TRANSITORY WORK PLAY This cyclical diagram shows the dynamic shift in activity at The Ace Hotel lobby from morning to night. This diagram emphasizes the notion of transitory-ness as the people occupying the space do not typically stay for long periods of times, and the program dynamically shifts from work and social activities.

BRO

A D WA

ET RE 5T

LEGEND SPEED

ACTIVITY TAKING PHOTO

PAUSE

ACTIVITY DURATION

WALKING

COMMERCIAL EVENT

INCLEMENT WEATHER

PARKING BICYCLE

PLEASANT WEATHER

SITTING

SLOWING DOWN

ELEMENTS PLANTERS TREES SUBWAY GRANITE BLOCK

PLEASANT WEATHER

MOVABLE SEATING

INCLEMENT WEATHER

CITIBIKE BENCH FLATIRON BINN GABAGE CAN

BUILDING TYPE

PUBLIC FACILITIES

RESIDENTIAL

GROCERYV

CAFE

BANK

RESTAURANT

RETAIL

SCULPTURE

Public pedestrian plazas have been popping up all over New York City to replace underutilized traffic triangles. This speed diagram shows the activities, speed, and paths of pedestrians in Flatiron Plaza, both in the warmer months and the winter months. Ironically, another underutilized triangle is created in the south plaza because people tend to have similar paths as they walk through the space. However when there are means of play, rest and hide, people will divert from their normal paths. This was shown in the North plaza, where there is no triangular void because the space was occupied with sculptures that change, pause and slow down people’s paths.

ELECTRIC BOX

B2—TRANSITORY WORK PLAY

WEE

NOOK STOP People gravitate to sidewalk nooks defined by a range of architectural elements on the street in different scales. These crevices allow for people to rest, socialize and PLAY. CHOREOGRAPHING PERFORMING AND WAITING Everyday commuting experiences can be greatly influenced by the performances inside the subway station. There is potential in curating performances based on the time of day, different areas of the subway, noisiness, activities, and speed of the subway users. LESS IS MORE The most minor interventions can spark the most activities in playgrounds. A bar or a shift in landscape can allow for multiple uses as a child imagines the rest. The less and un-prescribed the activator, the more PLAY. DISGUISE The corporate world invests hundreds of thousands up to Millions in ART – the public, only interacting with sculptures and paintings on a spectator level. These works, deployed in POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces) sit as monuments. Perhaps there is a way to make these public spaces more active through DISGUISING them as ART in order to re-appropriate corporate investment in Public Space.

B3—NOOK STOP

Analysis of Shifting Work - Play Activity At The Ace Hotel 10

8AM 9 9 WEEKD KEND A

Nook Studies An elderly sitting on a fire hydrant to take a break from walking. A suitable height to take a seat for a short amount of time. A businessman sitting on a sidewalk staircase to take a phone call. A suitable height for a long term, deeper seating space. People waiting for something in-between building columns. The slight height change from the ground allows him to sit without feeling like he is sitting on a NYC sidewalk and the columns create a corner where you are able to lean against. These two columns allow people to temporary hide away from the busy sidewalk and take a break. Also, this particular distance between them allows for two or mo re people to comfortably occupy and potentially interact with each other.

11 SOCIALIZE 12

30”

DRINKS

5” 32” 5”

14” 60”

36”

96”

6” 36”

EATING

COFFEE SLEEPING

SOCIALIZING BRUNCHING

315"

WORK

A1—CHOREOGRAPHING PERFORMING & WAITING

The subway station is an underground everyday life theater for commuters. It is an introduction of the city’s culture. It represents the city’s diversity through performances. The commuter is stimulated by the music from the buskers while they are waiting or in transit. There is a PLAY between a calibrated choreography of this theatre to the commuter’s movement. Like a soundt¬rack, sounds can activate a story through the curated and timed of performances, giving users an emotional experience.

A4—TRANSITORY WORK PLAY

There is a dynamic social phenomenon happening at the Ace Hotel in New York City. This hotel lobby is used as a place to work and play – from individuals working with their headphones to collectives collaborating, people meeting, having coffee, eating, having cocktails, and partying at night. There is a PLAY in the programming of this lobby that allows transitions between work and play activities.

Imagine infusing the energy of the Ace Hotel model to underutilized lobby spaces of public buildings. They will be transformed into something that will spark collaboration, socializing, and individual work over a short period of time.

A6—ESCAPE

The City is chaotic and noisy. PLAY can be to escape from the street – within the street.

A8—BALANCING ACT

A family PLAYS with mound of snow that has collected on their balcony. A child balances on the mound until he slides down from it. SNOW—a simple material that could create a temporal playground. As snow changes, the type of PLAY changes. As snow melts, what is left is a puddle of water. What can be more permanent play space that cab be pushed and pulled by water?

A10—FOCAL POINT

3 4

READING 62"

INDIVIDUAL WORK

In city parks around the city, fountains serve as an activator of PLAY and rest. The fountain is the FOCAL point of the park. Its many levels create multiple possibilities of activities within, around and outside it. Fountains historically have served as a place of accessing potable water. Perhaps bringing this use back into smaller distributed versions of a fountain can instigate a new type of PLAY.

12 1

68"

GALLERY EVENT

30" 48"

28"

18"

COLLABORATIVE WORK 11"

24" 36"

72"

1 PERSON 2 PEOPLE

3-4 PEOPLE

5 PEOPLE 6"

146.5"

56"

At around 8pm on the weekday, there’s a dramatic shift in activity as small and large groups inhabiting the lobby space socialize over a cocktail.

96"

28" 5" 30" 5"

60"

63"

12AM

Furniture Timeline 42” 36” 30” 24” 18”

5 - 10

1 hr

1 hr +

B4—CHOREOGRAPHING PERFORMANCE AND WAITING Demographic and Performance Studies of Union Sq. Subway Station SPACE

PERFORMANCE dB

TIME

5 AM

6 AM

9 AM

3 AM

110 dB

2 AM

100 dB

B5—LESS IS MORE PLAY

MORNING RUSH HOURS 7 AM

BARscape

Taxonomy of Activators

7-10 AM -High density of people(working adults & school goers) -High walking speed -Trains run every 2-10 minutes

8 AM

4 AM

120 dB

rock band art rock opera steel drum saxophone & drum duo jazz trumpet& pots & pan drum

10 AM

baroque harp & flute

dance,guitar duo gypsy funk trio

90 dB

1 AM

cello accoustic roots reggae accordion

80 dB

11 AM

ults

PAINT AS A PLANE-SURFACE

students

wor ki

vibraphone

tourist

NIGHT TIME

CREATE PERPENDICULAR PLANES HAND HELD-FURNITURE

STRATEGIZE/ESCAPE MOVING/SLIDING PLANES VOID/SOLID

BUILT MODULAR SOLIDS CREATING ENVIRONMENT

12 PM

LANDscape

nts

50 dB

60 dB percussion korean drum dancer

40 dB

elders mot he un r w em / st rolle plo r ye d

young adults

12 AM

70 dB

8 PM- MIDNIGHT -Low density of 11 PM people(young adult and tourist) -Medium walking speed -Trains run every 5-12 10 PM minutes

hip hop duo

stu

The projects in this proposition are by the graduating students of The New School SCE (School of Constructed Environments) 2015 design studio V

1 PM

2 PM

3 PM

9 PM

30 dB

20 dB

7 PM

10 dB poetry “living doll”

CONTEMPLATE OBJECT? MODULAR LEAST ANGLE SINGULAR IN GROUP SETTING

4 PM

8 PM

juggler& puppeteer

Frequency of train

Density of people

Speed of people

Contributors: Kanyaporn Tirarojkul Jialun Wu Hui Lin Zhang Yuki Nakayama Carisa Calpo Calvin Cheng Jiwon Hwang Selen Karadeniz Tiffany Kwan Jessica Lufrano Hannah Markey Jung Min Park Jenna Pino Niyata Singh Shannon Slattery Anna Tan

congas “dancing with Lupita” classical guitar chinese

working adults

A Drift Through New York City Can Redefine Play

Drifting through the New York Public Library, the reading room’s maze-like quality and various ornaments can allow a person to get lost in knowledge. Perhaps there is a way to infuse smaller libraries into the lobbies of public housing buildings to create a place of PLAY in these community spaces.

A3—NOOK STOP

PLAY is everyday temporary activities in our everyday temporary destinations.These are created by NOOKS that exists on our ordinary sidewalks that give people the opportunities to occupy it in many different ways depending on the needs at that moment. Exploring the potential of the NYC bus stops, these NOOKS are able to activate the space to expand its original program of just waiting into a bus stop that will engage the surrounding communities

A5—FREEDOM FROM TIME

PLAY can be defined as the opposite of work, something we do for ourselves that is the purest form of interaction with the world and others. To PLAY is to lose oneself in the moment and be temporarily free from the constructs of time and society. PLAY can be found when communities are given a free palette where they can build and define their own places of PLAY.

A7—TESTING THE LIMIT

A child can find PLAY in testing the boundaries of the sidewalk. A child engages in all changes along a path – from an obstacle, to a change in texture, level, a tree, a stoop, a bench, a crack and people walking in different speeds.

A9—DIVERSION

Pedestrian plazas have turned underutilized traffic triangles and streets into a place for everyday use in the last few years. However, these plazas are impossible to use during the colder months because the space is entirely open, with furniture that give no canopy, shading or places to hide from the wind even for temporal stay. There is a moment when art and installations intervene the plazas to allow the public to interact, stay and PLAY momentarily in the plaza, even when it is snowing.

ET RE ST RD 23

ET RE ST ND 21

9 10

©2015 actLAB Design & Art Direction Hardworking Good Looking actLAB Special Thanks to Critics: Brian McGrath, Alexis Kraft, Emily Moss, Natalie Fizer, Robert Kirkbride, Enriqu Walker, Norihiko Tsuneishi, Sachi Hoshikawa, Paul Chan, Diana Cristobal Olave actLAB Collaborators: Buzz Wei, Katalina Co, Sandra Javera, Rebecca Levy Aya Maceda Curator & Projects Advisor City of PLAY

Joas Bosman and Christine Boyer, Team 10 In Search of Utopia of the Present 1853-1981. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2006. Guy Debord, “Theory of the Dérive.”, Les Lèvres Nues #9, Paris, November 1956. Reprinted in Internationale Situationniste #2, Paris, December 1958. Translated by Ken Knabb. BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Anja Novak and Debbie Wilken, Aldo Van Eyck: Designing For Children, Playgrounds. Amsterdam: NAi Publishers/Stedelijk, 2002.

5 PM

6 PM

REFLEX INTERACTIVE W/WATER? MIDDLE ANGLE SINGULAR IN GROUP SETTING

At around 7 - 10 AM during the morning rush hour, there is a peek in density and speed of commuters. Workers and school children walk through the subway at a fast pace. Highlighted below is the most active location in Union Sq subway station. The possible performances that can be paired with the pace of the subway during this time are shorter performances that can enhance or alleviate the “rush”.

Runs every 20 mins Runs every 5-12mins Runs every 5-10mins Runs every 2-10mins

DREAM MATERIAL? CUT OUTS ABOVE MOST ANGLE SINGULAR NEAR WATER

SOCIALIZE MODULAR? CUT OUT? LEAST ANGLE GROUP FACING

B6—DISGUISE Public Art in Corporate Space

Speed Analysis of Union Square Subway Station Uptown

2 Nathaniel Rich, “The History of a City Underfoot”, New York Times, April 23, 2015, http://www. nytimes.com/2015/04/26/magazine/the-history-ofa-city-underfoot.html?_r=0. Downtown

1 Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

SNOW! The child takes over. Yet what it needs is something more permanent than snow. Aldo Van Eyck (1956) The city without the child’s particular motion is a malignant paradox. The child discovers its identity against all odds, damaged and damaging in perpetual danger and incidental sunshine. Edged towards the periphery of attention, the child survives, an emotional and unproductive quantum. When snow falls on cities, the child, taking over for a while, is all at once Lord of the city. Now if the child, thus assisted, rediscovers the city, the city may still rediscover its children. If childhood is a journey, let us see that the child does not travel by night. Where there is some room, something more permanent than snow can still be provided as a modest correction. Something, unlike snow, the city can absorb; and not altogether unlike the many incidental things already there the child adapts anyhow to its own needs and its own hazard.

$100K TIME & LIFE CUBED CURVE WILLIAM CORVELLO 1972 CURVED BLUE STEEL COMMIONED BY ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER NY ESTIMATE: $100,000

$4M LOVE ROBERT INDIANA 1966/1999 COR-TEN STEEL COURTESY OF SIMON SALAMA-CARO PROPERTY OF SHEARBROOK US L LC ESTIMATE:$4 MILLION

$100K MAMA BEAR TOM OTTERNESS 2011 BRONZE COMMIONSED BY MARLRBO ROUGH ESTIMATE: $ 100,000

JANEY WANEY ALEXANDER CALDER 1969 METAL COMISSIONED BY THE CALDER FOUNDATION ESTIMATE: $2 MILLION

8 Avenue

$800K RED CUBE NOGUCH 1968 RED PAINTED STEEL COMMISSIONED: LAND MARK PRESERVATION MARNE MIDLAND BANK ESTIMATE: $800,000

$100K SAD SPHERE TOM OTTERNESS 2014 STAINLESS STEEL, AND LIMESTONE, UNIQUE COMMISSIONED BY MARLBOROUGH ESTIMATE: $ 100,000

$4M

$100K SEED54 HARESH LALVANI 2012 STAINLESS STEEL COMMIONSED BY RXR REALITY ESTIMATE: $ 100,000

$2M

WHEN SNOW FALLS ON CITIES

City of PLAY

Drifting through the city has historically inspired writers, filmmakers and architects new ways of understanding the city, even the reinvention of it. In “Delirious New York”, Rem Koolhaas proposed New York City as a “mythical laboratory for the invention and testing of a revolutionary lifestyle: the Culture of Congestion” and the unique architecture it consequently produced.1 Observing distinct human behavior on the street is a potent instigator to create new ideas on how to design for urban life. In 1953, Team 10 proponents, Peter and Alison Smithson showcased the “Chisenhale Road” photographs of Nigel Henderson to the modernist discourse. The photographs of children playing on the street, sidewalk and stoop of London’s East End working class neighborhood opened the debate on designing for the human scale, and for bringing “the street” into play in architecture. Aldo Van Eyck, a member of this group that subverted functionalism designed a network of small playgrounds in the city of Amsterdam. Hundreds of play spaces with variations of humble play structures, sand pits, stomps, climbing bars, benches and pavement patterns brought the life unused spaces, either vacant or those destroyed by the second world war. Van Eyck designed for the child, and the simplicity of his play objects such as a suspended bar allowed a child to imagine, rather than be an immobile participant to the act of play. The impact of Van Eyck’s small interventions in its totality tremendously changed the way in which Amsterdam was experienced as a city, especially from the point of view of provoking the imagination of a creative generation. In New York City today, the pace of life has increased exponentially and life on the street has shifted towards the indoor vertical terrain and parks as destinations. Pre-industrial age literature would remind us however of the “edenic age of the New York streetscape”2 where New Yorkers used the sidewalks as great social spaces and places to play. Even with this shift, there are still behaviors in this walking city that could be interrogated – a slowing down amidst the momentum of people going places. A five-minute walk for a person in a rush could be an hour of adventure for a child who sees the sidewalk as a playground, where every obstacle, scaffolding, street sign and any change in level along a path is an object of play. A person in need of respite from congestion and noise may slip into a nook to temporarily escape. An elderly person may stay on a bench in a bus stop to have an exchange with a stranger, rather than to go somewhere. A person waiting for another may find pleasure from a busker on the street or a subway tunnel. There is much to observe in these moments of slowing down and carving space off the street. The subversion of the city’s pace in order to PLAY -- that is to socialize, to imagine, even to rest is the condition to design for. Perhaps the “other” territory of public space that needs critical insertion of dispersed places of PLAY goes back to the street, the sidewalks and underutilized small public spaces that branch off them. In observing human behavior, new play typologies can emerge that collectively will create a new experience of walking through city – a new drift with chances to encounter PLAY.

Distributed Typological Urban Play Activators

DRIFTING TO RE-IMAGINE A NEW DRIFT

OBJECT IN FIVE PLANES ALEXANDER CALDER 1965 RED STEEL COMMISSIONED BY THE CALDER FUNDATION ESTIMATE $4 MILLION

$200K LEDA AND THE SWAN FERNANDO BOTERO 2007 BRONZE, EDITION OF 3 COMMISSIONED BY MARLBOROUGH ESTINATE: $200,000

$1M VENUS DEMILO JIMDINE 1989 VERDIGRIS BRONZE COMMISSIONED BY CREDIT AGRICOLE BUILDING ESTIMATE: $1,000,000

$25M $55M BALLOON FLOWER JEFF KOONS 1995 STAINLESS STEEL ESTIMATE: $25,000,000

BALLOON DOG JEFF KOONS 1994-2000 STAINLESS STEEL ESTIMATE: $55,000,000

East Side Brooklyn

Source: Christie’s Auction, Phillips Auction, Artsy Incorporation, ARTNET.COM

DIY Single Module

Module Attachments

Furniture

C1 —BALANCING ACT

C2—FREEDOM FROM TIME

C3—DIVERSION

C4—NOOK STOPS

Floating Playground

Community Garden

Temporal Rest Spaces

Social Bus Stop

C5—LESS IS MORE PLAY

C6—ESCAPE

C7—GETTING LOST

C8—DISGUISE

C9—CHOREOGRAPHING PERFORMING & WAITING

Creative Playground Unit

Hideaway Media Box & Phonebooth

Public Library in Public Lobbies

Public Art in Private Space

Subway Performance Spaces

OVERLOOKING GLASS PLANE FOR VISUAL CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PLATFORM AND THE UPPER LEVEL

C10—TRANSITORY WORK- PLAY Flexible Work-Play Furniture