FUNchitecture: Play as Essential Public Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

This thesis stresses the importance of social infrastructure in urban environments and proposes that a play infrastructure is an equally essential function to the city as access to water. As play is established as a fundamental social building block, it is incumbent upon cities, planners and architects to design environments that celebrate the beneficial social opportunities play stimulates for all demographics. The instatement of a citywide play infrastructure is achieved through the methods of FUNchitecture. FUNchitecture establishes a method of design that acquires collective public input to transform existing urban infrastructure into a citywide play infrastructure. A FUNchitecture Headquarters is designed as a public research facility that procures, facilitates, fabricates and services the play demands of the city. The FUNchitecture headquarters establishes a top down framework that allows for bottom up action to occur. The establishment of a play infrastructure would confirm the importance of play as more than just a frivolous activity done in our spare time, but as something that gives meaning and identity to space and place. A play infrastructure provides the opportunity for the benefits of play to be unveiled as an essential part of our everyday lives.

Question: How can the methods of FUNchitecture inform the design of a citywide Play Infrastructure that contributes to quality of life and urban experience?