CITY AS A PLAY AND LEARNING LAB: PARTICIPATORY DESIGN AS A NEW PLAY FORM

Abstract

In our age, designers and architects have not explored the wide opportunities of play practices and participatory design. Designers need to realize this discovery both as a tool to expand and grow their creative capacities and as a critique of the defined learning experience and architectural education. This research titled “City as a Play and Learning Lab: Participatory Design as a New Form of Play” deals with architectural pedagogy in a play-driven way. By assuming the play as a strong methodology, the research includes children in the play production process on the axis of participatory design practices with the desire to implement new, meaningful, and creative play strategies. This research takes participatory design practices, processes, and outputs as a tool for the new form of play so that architecture can re-imagine the play. In the research, different design methodologies were tested on the axis of a play exercise carried out in cooperation with children in the Nilüfer district of Bursa. Play exercise sessions held with design students and children in different periods involve children in different stages of play production and design approach in the city. In this process, various forms of architectural reading and expression are included