Uncategorized

A Garden Airport in Singapore

Beth Kelley

One of my most favorite airports I have arrived at was the Maui International Airport, because one of their waiting rooms was an outdoor garden patio area, with lots of birds, flowers, and greenery that had an amazing calming effect for me after a long flight and while waiting for my next delayed flight (the pleasant weather probably helped too). I love the idea of incorporating more greenery as discussed for this Singapore airport…

Unknown's avatarTHE DIRT

singapore1 Project Jewel at Changi Airport, Singapore / Safdie Architects

Singapore has long aspired to be a “city in a garden.” Since the early 1960s, the 300-square-mile city-state has been serious about preserving nature and also greening underused spaces. In 1970, President Lee Kuan Yew dictated that there were to be “no brownfields;” all empty space would be planted. Today there are 5.4 million people packed into the island, but nearly 10 percent of the country is covered in parks, many of them newly created. More than 300 neighborhood and regional parks along with four nature preserves are in the process of being connected through hundreds of kilometers of greenways. Now, Singapore’s Changi airport, the sixth busiest in the world, is getting the same treatment as the rest of the country — its being greened, in an exciting way that re-conceives the experience of the airport.

Safdie Architects and

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creativity · play · Social · writing

A Videogame That Teaches You to Write Poetry, Even if It Intimidates You | WIRED

Beth Kelley

I don’t know if I would find this inspiring or not… thoughts?

Videogames and poetry haven’t always gone hand in hand.

We’re still a long way from Master Chief breaking into a Coleridge soliloquy. But game developers Ichiro Lambe and Ziba Scott have edged us a bit closer to that day with Elegy for a Dead World, a game they Kickstarted in October and released on Steam last month.

Elegy lets players write prose and poetry as they explore distant planets and dead civilizations. The player faces 27 challenges in three worlds, each riffing on a specific British Romance-era poem: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats, and “Darkness” by Lord Byron.

The different challenges find the player in various roles: an emperor rallying his troops before a doomed battle, for example, or a schoolgirl evacuating a city being bombed. Players travel through beautifully designed backgrounds, while on-screen text narrates the story. But much of the text is left blank—that’s when players tap their inner Wordsworths, finishing the tale with their own imaginations.

Throughout their adventure, players are tasked with using several writing styles: Plugging in blanks in prompts like serious Mad Libs, writing poems in rhyming couplets, or going totally freeform.

via A Videogame That Teaches You to Write Poetry, Even if It Intimidates You | WIRED.

behavior · environment · health · mental health · play · work

Creating playful and holistic spaces for healthier employees

Beth Kelley

The Clinton Foundation recently teamed up with my employer as part of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) to create more healthy, and healthier, employees in a corporate environment. There were five winners chosen, and these two were my personal favorites:

  • Make Work Active
  • Concept: Gamify holistic health and wellness. Design a points based rewards program to incentivize employees for adopting a healthy lifestyle at work, with programs tailored to industry specific wellness issues.
  • Workspace Design
  • Concept: Design workplaces that require regular movement physical activity. Create “motion enhancing workplace” certification. Create certification of “Motion Enhancing Workspaces” if sufficient requirements are met (Similar to Leed Certified buildings).

 

While some of the other ideas were also great – have fresh food on hand, make a team goal to improve health – I love these ideas in particular because they engage with employees on an individual level, and force the employee to engage with wellness, i.e. via a game and/or their environment.

I know gamification is a super “buzz” term right now, almost to the point of being passe, but I have found it to be a surprisingly powerful tool. A few years ago I organized a walking challenge at work, and bought cheap pedometers for everyone who wanted to participate. The winner ended up being the facilities manager, which surprised everyone but totally made sense since he was on his feet all day, and was a great example of how a lot of little walks add up.

Where have you seen either of these types of initiatives in action, whether at work, school, or in your neighborhood? Do you know of any group working on creating certifications for “healthy workspaces”? Share them in the comments below.

 

architecture · community · creativity · culture · environment · Social

We Asked 10 of Our Favorite Artists to Create Love Letters to Their Cities. Here’s What They Came Up With | GOOD Magazine 

Beth Kelley

Good Magazine Asked 10 of Their Favorite Artists to Create Love Letters to Their Cities. Here’s What They Came Up With… (click either the link below or the picture to see them all.)

via GOOD Magazine Cities Project .

architecture · children · design

This large-scale building kit helps kids learn about engineering, architecture, and design through play : TreeHugger

Beth Kelley

“Rigamajig is not about a finished product. It’s the playful process. The collaborating. The tinkering. The soft and hard skills that are learned while kids are engaged in play. This is what learning can look like!” – Cas HolmanInstead of coming with an instruction booklet that outlines how to build specific contraptions, the guide booklet for teachers, parents, and educators gives tips on how to best utilize Rigamajig for their situation, as well as offering “Play Prompts” to spur children’s imagination.

via This large-scale building kit helps kids learn about engineering, architecture, and design through play : TreeHugger.

creativity · play

Bored Coworkers Recreate Classic Paintings Using Office Supplies | DeMilked

Beth Kelley

On a lighter note, I am always appreciative of people who maintain a playful attitude and are able to have fun no matter where they are, even at work:

Francesco Fragomeni and Chris Limbrick found themselves bored at Squarespace’s office in NYC one day so they came up with a fun activity. Using only the stuff found in their office, the two coworkers managed to recreate the famous “Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo. They were pretty happy with the results, so they continued recreating iconic paintings, which eventually grew into a project called “Fools Do Art.”Other coworkers started to join into the fun and they began accepting idea submissions from people all around the world. Every recreation, however, has to satisfy two strict rules: it must be made exclusively using things found in the office, and any photo manipulations, if needed, must be made on a smart phone.

Some of these are really creative, and actually a pretty great way to teach people about art (*hint hint school admins*).

Check out all the pics via Bored Coworkers Recreate Classic Paintings Using Office Supplies | DeMilked.

Uncategorized

Exercise Boosts Kids Learning

Beth Kelley

*Begin rant*
Despite numerous studies like the one below, schools keep shortening or removing recess and open-ended, unstructured play from schools. It is ESSENTIAL to the learning process. You need time to THINK in order to LEARN!

I and my fellow play advocates will continue to shout this from the rooftops until every school administrator gets it through their thick skulls that by eliminating free play they are only shooting future generations in the foot and hamstringing themselves from achieving the already ridiculous testing goals designated by people who haven’t been in school since the 1960’s!

*end rant*

ahem

The link below is a summary of a very interesting and insightful study about the cognitive effects of play on children and how it impacts their learning in school. Worth a perusal. Enjoy.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/time_and_learning/2014/09/Exercise-Boosts-Kids-Cognitive-Ability.html

Uncategorized

Advertisers Create Playful Spaces

Beth Kelley

Not all of these are spatial, but enough of them are that I thought it was worth sharing the link.

http://news.distractify.com/matt-buco/creative-ads-that-make-me-want-to-buy-the-products/

Uncategorized

I have not forgotten about you

Beth Kelley

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to check in and say that I have not abandoned this blog. Life has just sort of been, well, happening lately. With lots of playful moments but also time-consuming, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging. But soon, soon, I will be back to share more about playful moments, enriching environments, and inspirations! I promise.

architecture

Scandinavian Future Workspaces Study

Beth Kelley

Saving this for later…

The Future Workspaces study has been conducted by SB Seating in collaboration with the Norwegian Design Council, under the Design Pilot programme. Together with ethnologist Truls Erik Johnsen and Designit, we have researched and conducted an analysis of a wide range of social trends that would affect the workplace 10 years from now. The purpose of the project has been to create scenarios for future workspaces through user involvement.Users from selected workplaces in Norway & Netherlands were interviewed, and observations of corporate cultures have been made. The developed scenarios provide conceptual directions for the future workspace and serve as useful input for long-term product development and brand strategy.

more via Future Workspaces – About the Study.