"Play is a fundamental part of life; it is a biological, social, cognitive necessity for individual children, but also has benefits for society and the human species.” - Declaration on the Importance of Play (2014)
If Atlanta is to be a great city in which to live, designing great places for children to play must become a top priority. MODA’s upcoming exhibition, Designing for a Playful City, will take visitors through an engaging and often interactive exhibit that will clearly lay out the important role of free, child-led play in the healthy development of all children. It will also encourage visitors to see play’s influence in their own lives. The exhibit will present a strong case for designing more and more urban play environments as cities become more densely populated.
Through interactive installations, experiences, and graphics, visitors will learn about successful play spaces around the world and what role design has had in their success. Central to the exhibit is bringing this design information home to Atlanta communities. The state of play throughout the City of Atlanta will be evaluated and visitors will be encouraged to participate in developing ideas for their own communities that they can then act upon.
Designing for a Playful City will also examine what other cities around the world are learning about play. It will engage the visitor to look for new solutions to bringing play to our ever growing city. This is not design for design’s sake. This is design for the sake of a greater tomorrow, so the exhibition will look at what children — the “end users” — want from play spaces and how we might design to meet those needs in Atlanta and beyond.
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.