Shapes of Play exhibition

Shapes of Play

Courtyard of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie

Exhibition opening on Saturday 24 October 2020 at 16.00 hrs (RSVP: Facebook event)

Playgrounds are temporary worlds, interiors within the public realm. According to Johan Huizinga, "Inside the playground an absolute and peculiar order reigns. Into an imperfect world and into the confusion of life it brings a temporary, limited perfection.” Shapes of Play aims to liberate the imaginary of the playground from fenced enclaves reserved for children and reimagine them as experimental public spaces for all ages.

Shapes of Play is a 1:1 exhibition of performative, expressive, and tactile concrete play elements designed by students in the Architectural Design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, led by Studio Ossidiana in collaboration with high-end terrazzo manufacturer Tomaello.

Within a one-month intensive workshop, students learned how to work with concrete, experimenting with different casting processes and formwork techniques and combining pigments, stones, aggregates, and cement, along with hemp, lime, earth clay, and other materials.

The resulting exhibition, taking place outdoors in the courtyard of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, contains four architectural elements, each reimagined for play by groups of students: the wall, the column, the platform, and the stair.

Shapes of Play is part of Class of 2020, an initiative by the Dutch Design Week. The project is generously supported by the Dutch Design Foundation.

https://ddw.nl/en/programme/5287/shapes-of-play

Students: Darya Akhrameika, Fanny Bezie, Kaja Boudewijn, Miriam Chair, Carlyn Edenne, Joshua Goyenechea, Buse Ilgaz, Kevin Kim, Danute Liva, Yasmin Lyon, Didi Putte, Giovanni Salice, Ilya Stasevich, Leonie Wegertseder

Tutors: Studio Ossidiana (Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti)

Project Partners: Tomaello B.V.

Photo: Shapes of Play exhibition concept model. Photo: Studio Ossidiana