A few years after we had finished the Winter Residence, the same client asked us to create an enclosed space for her children to play. This was a challenge because the only opportune spot was right in front, and we risked spoiling the work we had just completed.
We tried to create a space with just a few bold gestures to spark creativity. It was about creating a framework for the imagination but without getting in its way - a line of concrete, a shaded cube, a grassy patch, sand, a wall, and two little boys. Our aim was to create a place for: Running, Jumping, Hiding, Imagining, Growing, and Learning. A place where PLAY was taken seriously enough to be fun, but we recognized that a space like this needs to eventually grow up. Children change, and their ideas of play changes. It will need to become a space that will serve the needs of toddlers, teenagers, adolescents and grown-ups alike.
We recognized that the problem with adults is that we forget how to play. We tend to believe that play is only found around bright-colored plastic contraptions that resemble adult stuff. But play is about imagination and soaring in the possibilities of the impossible. So our aim was to create a space for filling; filling with the joy of laughter, with the sparks of pretending, with patter of running and jumping.
This 10’ cube sits like a toy block- hanging on the edge, hovering above the desert floor. One day it’s a store; another a boat, a space ship, a nest, a cave, a theatre. And as the sun sets, it wonders what it will get to be tomorrow.
