Case E
A city playground and the connection of family and everyday life
This case study is part of a full-length paper entitled, A Family of Sensibilities: Presented through 6 practitioners doing work grounded in Materiality + Embodiment. Read about it here. [Link will be available once article is published]
Intro
When I first visited Stavanger, Norway I was struck by how industrial some areas looked. That was quite different from the picturesque landscapes I imagined for Norway. I discovered how much the oil industry played a major role in people’s lives, and the city landscape. In Siv Helen Stangeland’s projects, however, she seemed to be drawing from the inherent strength of the places she works in. She says “materials are a starting point”, and asks: “What kind of materials are there? What materials are produced, processed or further developed in this area?” By choosing not to bring something new, they start with what they find and transform it, by putting it together in new ways. Siv’s practice seems to fundamentally recognize the resourcefulness which lives (hidden) in a place. And from that space of inherent possibility, she holds space for something to be collectively created.
When Siv considers embodiment in her practice, she says, “We invite the ‘final user’ to walk, to visit, to be on the site and context — being present, and discovering things in different stages of development”. Siv’s process for embodiment is not abstract. Instead, it is about smelling, hearing, and being directly in touch. It is embodied because it is experienced. Siv also reflects that children have embodied tasks. They draw, make collages and at the end, they join architects and designers to produce tangible outcomes. In this way, children are playing and making the narrative, which is in the realm of imagination. Her practice aspires for more sustainable, and healthier future(s) for communities, and acknowledges that embodiment begins from how, as a community, we can create together something we wish for.
The Case
What is the context and the project you’re talking about here?
“Relational design” is a design that grows from a specific site or situation, always in relation to that area or place. The project grows from resources that exist somewhere. There are people, industries, materials, and an economy — relational design means to work and “grasp” this larger context. It departs from the fundamental notion that our social reality is anyways a process of co-creation. Siv acknowledges that, as architects and designers, they may remain for some time with a project, and then leave. However, the relational aspect should also be a quality of the design in its finished stage.
The specific project involved the design of two playgrounds in Norway and Sweden. The studio understood that creating the playground could be a process of shaping, changing, producing, and learning how to make something sustainable. In both contexts, they took local industries (i.e. oil production, and car manufacturing) as the starting points because they recognized the city life was largely influenced (e.g. resources, money, work routines) by these industries. A second core decision in this project was to invite children to collaborate in the making.
The team contacted three schools and ran workshops in which they asked children for what kind of materials are produced in the area (e.g. tools, robots, machines). Then, children were given different tasks. They were asked to make collages, and stories about the future. Slowly, the group built ideas and elements for the playground out of this process. It was agreed that the playground should be built out of elements that could be found in the factories. That called for a journey of introducing materials, where they come from, how they are made. This ended up making visible a closer perspective into the lives of the children and their families, as some had parents and family members working in these factories. Siv says “in that way, we understood more of how society is ‘put together’. In drawing from local resources and children’s imagination, Siv says “it became a ‘never-before-seen playground’”.
Do you think of this project as practicing “embodiment” (i.e. as in living in one’s body)? In what ways does it show up?
We invite the “final user” to walk, to visit, to be on the site and context. Being present, and discovering things in different stages of development. It is not an abstract approach with a visualization or a digital tool. Instead, it is about smelling, hearing the noise and being directly in touch with the works that are produced in the region. It is embodied because it is experienced.
On a second perspective, it is embodied because the children have embodied tasks. They draw, make collages and at the end, they join architects and designers to produce tangible outcomes. In this way, children are playing and making the narrative, which is in the realm of imagination.
Do you understand this project to be one of working with “materials”? What would these “materials be”? Could you give an example?
In Sweden, we used steel, pipes, robots, plastic, different kinds of rubber, paper, cardboard, metal joints, concrete blocks, water, ropes (steel and plastic), pens, paint, colors.
What are the ways people interact with them?
People interact by visiting the production sites, they smell, see, touch, and test. For example, children try to test if they can climb or sit on something. Through play, they use the body to check what kinds of use something can have.
How do you describe the role of the specific material, and materials in general?
Materials are a starting point. In their projects, they frequently ask: what kind of materials are there? What materials are produced, processed or further developed in this area? By choosing not to bring something new, they start with what they find and transform it, by putting it together in new ways. Hence, the materials are like a ‘repertoire’ to play with, suggesting different uses. For example, materials may suggest where to be placed. In the playground project, some of the children drew trees and the group decided to use steel pipes to make a tree shade. Then, they realized they needed some soft materials to fold and make it possible for the children to climb. When they found airbags (from the cars), they picked them and used them on the ground. In a playful process, Siv says “they end up using something in a completely new way”.
“Materiality is like saying ‘reality’, it is all that you experience around you”.
By shaping things, and testing with their bodies how to use something. Siv recalls when they shared with children that they needed to find something soft. Then, children need to think “what is soft?” Which is ultimately a feeling of what the body knows. It is their embodied knowledge of how different materials work.
Materiality: Solid (i.e. you can feel when you touch it; sense with your body), physicality, properties, textures, weight, history, context, place.
Read more about Siv Helene Stangeland here.
Read more from this publication
Case A | A handbag and the making of a boundary
Case B | A deck of cards and a vocabulary for social choices
Case C | A collection of home things and the gauging of limits
Case D | A balcony and a way of caring
Case E | A city playground and the connection of family and everyday life
Case F | A hacienda as an “instrument” to notice and wonder
