Taking Over with Play

Play is an experience which affords people different reactions and interactions. It is an activity which is not just for children and can be intergenerational. Areas of play are vital spaces to a growing community. The use of play as a design tool can open plenty of opportunities for creating more inclusive, flexible, cohesive, and social places within a community.

This research aims to investigate how the inclusion of play and physical play elements can improve public engagement and interaction within a space and transform underutilised spaces like St Anne’s Church and School, and Mercy Park in Newtown.

St Anne’s is a Catholic church and school, and Mercy Park is a public park which is right next door to the church and school property, both are in the Wellington city suburb of Newtown. The site has a rich history, and its current use offers multiple opportunities for research. The property is private, however there is a prominent use of the space by members of the public streaming in from Mercy Park which makes the spaces have an interesting dynamic, with mixed uses occurring. It is a valuable space for the community which uses it. It opens an interesting opportunity for design research as changes over time has forced the primary users being the school and church to adapt and share their space over the years. This has also impacted how play and public interactions occur in the space.

The methods used in this research focus on combining spatial assessment, community engagement and physical installations to develop an understanding of how play can be used as a tool to improve playfulness in space and social engagement across a site. Observational studies, school workshops, and temporary built models provided the foundation of knowledge that was able to be applied to into the redevelopment design of the site.

The findings of this process were that the space had play occurring in it, however it had major opportunities to thrive and improve on the existing elements and make it even more playful. It was found through testing of the temporary physical models that the children and adults occupied the spaces in which they did not necessarily stay long in before. The design response resulted in a master plan of the site which was expanded to include Mercy Park as part of it. The design shows how play can spark new interest in the space as well as foster new and longer lasting social interactions in the space. These improvements build on the existing sense of community and playfulness of the site increasing the public engagement and overall use of the space.