Urban Playground

The City as Urban Playground ?

Daniel Chao, MIT Department of Architecture
James Teng, MIT Media Laboratory
Annina Rust, MIT Media Laboratory

Ask
This unit attempts to observe and manipulate urban public spaces and specific events. How can we use urban interventions to re-examine our surrounding urban environment, to redress the problem of urban isolation, and the increasing disappearance of “place”?

Attitude
A place consists of not only its physical objects, but the countless events happened in it, the ambience created by its population, and conditions imposed by institutions and human. These intangible contents are situations that make a physical space be meaningful. Public spaces in urban environments today have been neglected. Their sole purpose is providing transitions. This unit would like turn this situation upside down; we would like to make public spaces the stages for interesting activities. Our approach is through urban interventions. Taipei city is our target in this workshop.

Analyze
We all have experiences how an ordinary urban public space can be turned into a meaningful place when some specific public events and activities happen. Taking the stairs in front of the Eslite bookstore as an example, regular stairs for circulation become micro amphitheater for plays and performances. In the New Year’s Eve, daily roads for urban transportation become public spaces for people to watch the fireworks performed by the Taipei 101, and the divisions between the roads become the benches for rest. The entrances in front of the bookstore and the divisions between the roads become the meaningful places with unforgettable memories.

Action
We would like to discover, observe, and analyze, spaces and places that have potentials for activities and events. We would like to transform those public spaces into playgrounds of human scale. We would like to experiment the idea flashing the city endlessly through injecting and stimulating dynamic events into the urban terrain. Specifically, our group will deliver 3-4 urban interventions, be them installations or performances, through which the pedestrians can be brought back to public spaces.