Initiatives / Experiments / Visions

PopUP Răspiua - mobile, inclusive playground

Principal author

Iris Popescu, Mihaela Șerban, Sabrina Ahmad

Profession

Arhitecți

Co-authors (team members)

Ioana Enache, Alexandra Anastasiu, Alexandru Cucu

Architecture office

Rhizome

Collaborators (team members)

Iulian Canov, Dan Daraban, Tudor Albu

External collaborators

Vlad Stoica, Sorin Chirica, Sorina Dumitru, Simina Filat, Teodora Sarbu

Project year

2017

Location

București/spațiu de joacă mobil

Client

AMAis - Asociația Metodelor Alternative de Integrare Socială

Budget

14000EUR

Build surface area

6.25-200mp (adaptabil în funcție de context)

Project description

In Romania, people with disabilities experience a strong self-isolation phenomenon due to: - the attitude of the people around them (a subjective factor related to mentality / prejudice) - inaccessible built environment (objective factor directly affecting mobility) This phenomenon appears during childhood, at playgrounds - the place where children become self-conscious and aware of the differences between them. Playing shapes the character of the adult of tomorrow, thus playgrounds must be accessible to every child, regardless of his/her abilities. PopUp Răspiua, the second AMAis project, is a contact platform between able-bodied kids and those with disabilities, embodied as a mobile playground. The design process was participatory, thus having activities with children from special schools - focus groups, "playdates", observation on site. This way, information has been gathered about preferences, playing difficulties, usability of playground facilities and how children interact with each other. Sensory perception stimulation is the key element of this inclusive playground, as it helps develop cognition, motor skills and social interaction. Multi-sensory approaches facilitate the interaction between children with different disabilities/abilities. PR stimulates the imagination of children through basic geometric shapes, different textures and modular delimitations, materialized through: armors and casemates. The armors are modular, interconnected and multifunctional tools designed to give children the opportunity to generate various scenarios and to get involved directly into configuring the playground. The casemates, a recurrent element in play history, draw a line between the world of imagination and grown-ups’ reality by creating semi-protected playing sockets. The playground is designed to give children the opportunity to have an equal shot at playing. The modular nature of PR components makes them adaptable to almost any context (interior/exterior) and the mobility part is helping us promote the public playgrounds accessibility initiative. PR offers the possibility of a personal playing experience - for vulnerable categories - and a playful and empathetic interaction - for able-bodied children. It also raises awareness for the need to multiply and replicate such an initiative at an administrative level.

Text description of the author

Freshly out of the oven, Rhizome was born out of the collaboration of three AMAis members. The area of interest for the team revolves around the principles of inclusive design, explored from the perspective of the senses - scanners of individual realities. Rhizome explores the local context, detects errors and proposes solutions based on its own approach strategies. It seeks to combine contexts where the problems studied can find solutions in the urban, economical and administrative realities.

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