Ordinary life oscillates between dichotomies: from work to leisure, from reality to fantasy, from private to public. These are distinct worlds that bring order to the chaos of experience; their boundaries contain what philosopher James Carse calls finite games. As we move from game to game, we find ourselves in perpetual motion. SUPER ORDINARY explores Carse‚s other type of game: the infinite game. It is an architectural investigation of its potential to transcend the serious and experience the truly playful, an attempt to manifest a place without boundaries in a world defined by them. Lamport Stadium is the setting for this journey. In this theatre of finite games, our experiences are limited to its rules and boundaries. However, where we truly play, we liberate personal narratives from finite games. Architecture, rather than categorizing experience, is instead redefined through experience. Ergo, rather than the site of finite games, SUPER ORDINARY imagines Lamport Stadium as an infinite game. The dichotomies of finite play˜field and bleacher, player and observer, inside and out, and so on˜are dissolved, and the stadium becomes a place of possibility and adventure; here, we can at once submit to the ecstasy of the place while forging our own narratives. It is a building that is never quite finished, but always open to our imaginations.

Ordinary life oscillates between dichotomies: from work to leisure, from reality to fantasy, from private to public. These are distinct worlds that bring order to the chaos of experience; their boundaries contain what philosopher James Carse calls finite games. As we move from game to game, we find ourselves in perpetual motion. SUPER ORDINARY explores Carse‚s other type of game: the infinite game. It is an architectural investigation of its potential to transcend the serious and experience the truly playful, an attempt to manifest a place without boundaries in a world defined by them. Lamport Stadium is the setting for this journey. In this theatre of finite games, our experiences are limited to its rules and boundaries. However, where we truly play, we liberate personal narratives from finite games. Architecture, rather than categorizing experience, is instead redefined through experience. Ergo, rather than the site of finite games, SUPER ORDINARY imagines Lamport Stadium as an infinite game. The dichotomies of finite play˜field and bleacher, player and observer, inside and out, and so on˜are dissolved, and the stadium becomes a place of possibility and adventure; here, we can at once submit to the ecstasy of the place while forging our own narratives. It is a building that is never quite finished, but always open to our imaginations.

Adults in North American society lack the natural ability of children to play and explore their environments in a non-judgemental, non-programmed manner. The underlying theories of James Carse and Johan Huizinga examine play and its effects on adult culture. St. Louis Adult Education and Learning Centre in downtown Cambridge, Ontario serves as a testing ground for an adult play-space. Presently, the school lacks any public, non-programmed spaces to accommodate the student population, largely comprised of single, teenage mothers. Aldo van Eyck’s architecture, together with his theoretical essays, heralded the importance of play in culture and to the individual. Van Eyck created a network of playgrounds to revitalize and rehabilitate the city of Amsterdam after the Second World War. His designs of the temporary Sonsbeek Pavilion and sculpture garden in Arnhem, the Netherlands, brought play into the cultural realm of 1966. Van Eyck’s design of the Sonsbeek pavilion concretizes the play-theories of Carse and Huizinga. A collage of the Sonsbeek Pavilion inserted into the empty grounds at St. Louis tests the play theories of van Eyck, Carse and Huizinga. It provides a space for play where no play currently exists. The Sonsbeek Pavilion’s heavy, concrete walls and labyrinthian plan swallow the players, who become immersed in a place of play. As the player moves through the pavilion, the view shifts to provide or block views of the adjacent spaces. The pavilion proposes a site of exploration and surprise. It provides the possibility for the adult students, the teenage mothers, their children, and the surrounding community to play.

Adults in North American society lack the natural ability of children to play and explore their environments in a non-judgemental, non-programmed manner. The underlying theories of James Carse and Johan Huizinga examine play and its effects on adult culture. St. Louis Adult Education and Learning Centre in downtown Cambridge, Ontario serves as a testing ground for an adult play-space. Presently, the school lacks any public, non-programmed spaces to accommodate the student population, largely comprised of single, teenage mothers. Aldo van Eyck’s architecture, together with his theoretical essays, heralded the importance of play in culture and to the individual. Van Eyck created a network of playgrounds to revitalize and rehabilitate the city of Amsterdam after the Second World War. His designs of the temporary Sonsbeek Pavilion and sculpture garden in Arnhem, the Netherlands, brought play into the cultural realm of 1966. Van Eyck’s design of the Sonsbeek pavilion concretizes the play-theories of Carse and Huizinga. A collage of the Sonsbeek Pavilion inserted into the empty grounds at St. Louis tests the play theories of van Eyck, Carse and Huizinga. It provides a space for play where no play currently exists. The Sonsbeek Pavilion’s heavy, concrete walls and labyrinthian plan swallow the players, who become immersed in a place of play. As the player moves through the pavilion, the view shifts to provide or block views of the adjacent spaces. The pavilion proposes a site of exploration and surprise. It provides the possibility for the adult students, the teenage mothers, their children, and the surrounding community to play.