The Playground, an installation by Architensions, is unveiled at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Photography by Lance Gerber
Words by Sonia Zhuravlyova
Design firm Architensions has created a phantasmagorical installation, dubbed The Playground, on the grounds of the Californian music festival Coachella.
The Playground consists of four steel-framed towers painted in magenta, yellow and cyan – colours derived from the dichroic film (which changes colour depending on viewing angle) used to cover some of the shapes.
The playful installation’s structure and forms reference urban typologies such as piazzas, parks and arcades and reframe the role of the tower as a site of fun, rather than an ‘urban luxury paradigm’.
Photography by Michael Vahrenwald
‘It proposes a vertical city in a place where decades of horizontal sprawl have defined a certain type of leisure and suburban growth defined by apartness,’ explains the studio’s Nick Roseboro.
‘Instead it experiments with the possibilities of improving our environment to foster physical interaction and collectivity.’
The installation reacts with the sun: the dichroic film projects colours on the ground and onto the festival-goers, while mirrored film reflects the valley’s surroundings.
Photography by Lance Gerber
Jutting shapes and sky bridges create playful shadows, while benches at ground level connect the towers and form an inviting spot in which to rest and engage with the sculpture.
‘The design evokes a familiar urban landscape, where the significance of play is reverted to its original definition of free personal time, in other words, a playground,’ explains Architensions’ Alessandro Orsini.
‘The grids create a new common ground, an open space that opposes the isolation and homogeneity of technologically mediated experiences.’
Photography by Michael Vahrenwald
‘At heart, The Playground provides its audience a space to realign the spirit and to rediscover leisure in a way that is not inherently attached to commerce or digital interpolation,’ adds Roseboro.
‘In an age when technology substitutes for real-life experiences through mediated images, the project presents a physical atmosphere that is both dynamic and enveloping.’
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