Ludic Life: Playful Terrain

In the present day urban context, play is an important but largely neglected aspect of people’s everyday experience; it involves a wide variety of activities which are mostly spontaneous, sometimes irrational, and often unanticipated. In order to have a broader understanding of how people experience and perform in public spaces, this thesis explores the concept of “play” as defined by Huizinga in “Homo Ludden” and propose that the way people act or experience urban context coheres with the concept of “play”.  The aim of the thesis is to revive a pure sense and joy of “play” through design of a hybrid cultural recreational terrain that re-imagines challenging urban spaces where historically important sites, elements, and parks exist but are experientially segregated by some urban elements or obstacles. The thesis proposes design interventions that transform these obstacles into opportunities to create a pathway of play experiences that inspire the creative imagination of the people using it.