Domio. Free & challenging play modular play facilities in public spaces

Abstract

Risky elements in play are of great importance to healthy child development. They are naturally attractive to children especially at the age when their athletic performance is developing at a rapid pace. While in many traditional children’s areas, because of safety concern from adults, play facilities that are restricted by strict construction rules tend to homogenize. This project is located in the area between experienced challenging feelings and the actual risk of injury, in order to discover more design possibilities for children playing in public spaces. The goal of this project is to create a group of play facilities that provide children with more choices in free and challenging play. This project has four phases: research-initiated design, concept generation, design evaluation & development and design articulating & simulating. Specific methods applied in the stages are staging design activity, on- site observations, brainstorm, testing with scale models, interaction prototyping with children, qualitative analysis, 3D modeling and rendering. The outcome of this project is Domio. By reconsidering the way children play interactively, Domio begins an exciting method to play with balancing. It encourages open-ended play where children can create their own rules with other players. Besides, to suit a wider range of environmental requirements, Domio has been designed with the needs of space planners in mind and is therefore modular. This project brings knowledge in how the theory of protective frames can be applied in design to create a relative safe area for children to explore risky play with different levels of experienced challenge feelings