Territories of Play - Deep Space

Abstract

DEEP SPACE is the 9th iteration of Voluptas' research on play and architecture. The course encourages students to analyse the relationship between play and space by focussing on depth as a spatiotemporal condition that goes beyond the question of form. It will test playfulness as a critical design tool and investigate depth as a multifaceted and desirable condition of urbanity.

Objective

Participants of the course will be able to understand the importance of absence as spatial strategy and apply basic principles of critical urban design. Furthermore, students will be able to evaluate the importance of non-material aspects for the experience of our lived environments. By performing the course's exercises, participants will apply strategies that generate depth and investigate their potential to undermine established norms and rules.

Content

The seminar aims at bringing together the ludic territories of play with the hidden realms of depth to attempt a critical reading of contemporary urban conditions and develop a design vocabulary for playful and deep spatial transformation. In contrast to depth as a visual phenomenon – which was formally introduced to the architectural discourse in the Renaissance by means of the linear perspective – depth will be investigated phenomenologically. The seminar is dedicated to the questions of what role depth perception plays in games, how it can be created or manipulated, and whether it can be transferred to architecture as a playful and critical design strategy. These questions are addressed through a speculative exercise with four progressive steps: First, participants critically describe an urban space they know and gather its most iconic images to construct a visual arsenal. Second, they study and document a game of their choice, portray its unique spatial dimensions, and extract the main mechanisms for generating depth. This analysis will culminate in a diagrammatic representation of the game's main depth mechanic(s). Third, the identified mechanic(s) from the game in step two will be used to manipulate the space portrayed in step one. This spatial manipulation will be performed by means of montage and culminate in a "deep image". Finally, participants are asked to write a speculative logline that links the diagram of the game with the montage of the space. The exercise structures the seminar as follows: Ex.1: Describe an urban space and gather its most iconic images to form an arsenal. Ex.2: Analyse a game of your choice and draw a diagram of its depth mechanic(s). Ex.3: Manipulate the space from ex.1 by means of montage and by making use of a mechanic from ex.2. Ex.4: Write a logline that links the diagram of the game with the montage of the space. Following the structure of the exercise, the seminar will include additional readings, lectures on architecture and game theory, as well as practical inputs (tools). The exercise of the seminar is to be completed individually. Selected projects will be presented by the respective students in the final session of the seminar.

Resources