A playground slide is a very specific thing. Its form enables a particular set of actions---climbing, sliding, falling---without dictating how these activities are to be carried out. It is left to the child to imagine uses for the thing, to invent the rules for the games that go with the device. These qualities of formal specificity and functional ambiguity serve as the point of departure for my design of a public elementary school in Houston.
Given an unusual variety of spaces and features which suggest different ways of sitting, ascending and descending, hiding, paying attention or not---the people who use this place will be inspired to invent their own activities. Definite but enigmatic elements are employed to trigger associations, to encourage exploration, experimentation and the use of one's imagination; not only by children, but by the teachers, administrators and parents who also use the site.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/17663 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Chopra, Aidan |
| Contributors | Wittenberg, Gordon |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 103 p., application/pdf |
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