“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato
Our 2013 studio focus was to imagine and propose a University district that is shaped by physical invitations for urban play, demonstrating strategies of resilience, inclusiveness, and authenticity. During the studio, we designed infrastructure and infill projects and programs to activate public space, streets, and sites within the district, with the goal of contributing to a high-functioning, socially responsive and environmentally regenerative city. Our studio applied lessons learned from our summer travels and from our interactions with Gehl Architects as inspiration to plan and design an artful, walkable, bikeable, and playful public realm: a livable and lovable community.
During the term, our Master Studio benefited from the involvement of Bianca Hermansen from Gehl Architects, who has interacted with our ScanlDesign studios as the Master Teacher for the past four years. Throughout the quarter, we built on the Copenhagen study tour by employing and expanding on Gehl’s 15 Quality Criteria as we developed our planning and design proposals for the urban public realm. In our designs, we were encouraged to creatively engage ecological considerations and such challenges and opportunities as urban intensification, affordability, habitat protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Our studio was fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with professionals and stakeholders who are involved in the visioning, planning and design for the district, which helped us consider the voices of diverse current and future users.