Our PLAYSPACE/PLAYSCAPE proposal for the City of Sudbury embeds the idea of play within the city scape. Play is used to re-think and re-introduce urban connections between existing key pockets and create new public urban spaces. It engages citizens to participate in the future identity of their city in a meaningful way. Play as process. Play as design. Play as program. Play as space.
PLAYSPACE/PLAYSCAPE came about as a response to an impression of the existing city as fragmented and disjointed - both at the larger scale within the metropolitan region and at the smaller scale within the city core itself. PLAYSPACE/PLAYSCAPE proposes a strategy rather than a static design response - one that could be scaled up or down and expanded in order to meet the social and political needs, economic context and overall aspirations of Sudbury not only today but in the future.
While the current proposal focuses on the city core, the strategy is designed to be expandable to create links to other key pockets such as Bell Park & Lake Ramsey, the Art Gallery of Sudbury, Science North and even further afield to Laurentian University, Cambrian College, etc.
We began our initial research asking Sudburians what they would consider THE 'destination' within the city centre - "what would be the hub?" and were surprised that many responses were met with sarcastic remarks or answers such as "don't bother spending time in the city, better to go out of the city and enjoy the surrounding nature". As we began delving into the urban core itself, we too were surprised by the lack of 'place', noticing a shocking amount of the city core occupied by vast, underutilized parking lots that fractured a sense of connection. This lack of urban definition, lack of buildings and businesses holding street corners and defining meaningful urban space fundamentally makes for a challenging sense of place. How could one begin to create connections between the little pockets that are in fact characterful and more successfully engage with the street? Could we come up with a simple overarching strategy that could be rolled out at an urban scale that is not only flexible, but fun? Without filling in parking lots with predefined buildings and programs that might be unnecessary, unfeasible or unviable, would it be possible to create a sense of place that would encourage new businesses, new urban density to happen naturally and at a achievable pace? Could we create the 'destination' or the 'hub' without the capital 'A' of 'Architecture'?
Our proposal, 'Chutes and Ladders' (also known as Snakes and Ladders), is inspired by the children's board game of the same name. While the current grid of the city may leave us with standard, perhaps even robotic methods of navigating the city core streets, PLAYSPACE/PLAYSCAPE seeks to create 'chutes' and 'ladders' that redefine both the ground plane as well as a slightly higher canopy level, that snake through the city creating new pathways and connections that comprise a variety of public functions within these in-between spaces, laneways and existing streets.
Both the 'chutes' and the 'ladders' are conceived as bold, colourful brushstrokes through the city. The yellow-toned 'chutes', inspired by Dorothy's journey along the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, operate primarily on the ground plane, consisting of a multitude of small yet powerful urban interventions such as vivid pavement colour treatment, playful urban seating, water features that can transform in the winter months into skating zones, skateboard parks, bicycle and cross-country skiing stands and routes, pedestrianized paths and new injections of greenery.
The blue-toned 'ladders', inspired by the historic vernacular of the mining industry infrastructure that surrounds the area, operate at an elevated level to create lightweight, flexible 'canopy' structures that provide covered or semi-covered spaces to exist within the external environment, framed views to the sky, suspended playful elements such as swing sets and lighting. These structures can not only provide some shelter for the cold, snowy winter months but also shading during the high heat of the summer. The 'ladder' structures would be built using locally sourced mass timber to engage with the Northern Ontario Forest industry. These insertions celebrate wood construction by enhancing the visibility of this craft throughout the city core.
Certain chutes and ladders are designed to conceptually uncover hidden historical routes through the city such as the Junction waterway route which has long since been covered up and exists far underground whilst others have been proposed to create new routes through the city within underutilized spaces such as Medina Lane.
Simple yet bold green spaces and follies mark key moments where the yellow 'chutes' intersect with the blue 'ladders'. These follies enable users to experience a different, elevated perspective of the city, as one would experience in a treehouse. Inspired by the mining head frame structures (such as those seen at Stobie Mine in Sudbury which closed in 2017), these new follies would also be built from mass timber to carry through this language and to interject reflections of these historical elements into the city in a new and playful way.
PLAYSPACE/PLAYSCAPE invites the community to participate in the activation and population of these chutes and ladders - a process that can grow and transform once the base of these brushstrokes has been established. For instance, members of the community could be invited to propose 'game pieces' for the board, incorporating a variety of functions relevant to the different pockets of the city.
A more ephemeral experience might be the inauguration of a Chutes and Ladders festival where the cityscape is transformed into an actual board game where teams move through the city according to the throw of dice.
"A play-community generally tends to become permanent even after the game is over" - Johan Huizinga (Homo ludens)
Sudbury 2050: Let's play.
(Competitor's text)
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