ALIVE is an outdoor fitness area, with analog games, encapsulated within an orchard. An outdoor fitness area constructed out of stainless steel paying homage to the steel industries history. This place could become vitalized by people actively engaging in sports making it a very lively place. This would also start to encourage others to become active as well, by setting a great example and serving as positive motivation. This is a great active element beneficial to all ages. This could be combined with mobile containers, filled with earth, to integrate natural greenery into the space providing a home for beautiful edible flowers and herbs, beneficial for bees, birds insects and humans and all these small plants are grounded by a fruit tree which in a few years will bear their first fruits for the community to enjoy at the beginning of autumn. The mobile garden would also enable periodic changes to the place in terms of layout and allow for a flexible use of the space for outdoor events and gatherings. These mobile garden units can have the necessary add-ons integrated such as seating, trashcans and so on. The floor would be painted as a community. Certain spots would be reserved for analog kids games while others would be used for artistic expression by the community. The public could actively participate with the support of local artists to bring their vision as a collective to life. With a place this bright and lively, active and green, pop-up events would flock to become part of this space with commercial and creative opportunities complementing this space with additional offerings from public yoga classes, arts & crafts workshops and many more community activities. But what will it look like? A floor that is filled with colors. Except gray. Large pots filled with earth and plants, with integrated seating areas. And minimal outdoor fitness tools created from stainless steel and wooden decorative elements.
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4 Responses
that sounds like an interesting idea!
However, do you have any visuals that make that idea come alive?
The artwork that will be painted on the floor will be a collaboration between participants (artists & visitors) and should fill up the entire square.
The childhood games that will be painted on the floor range from Hopscotch, Twister, Red Light Green Light, Mother May I, and many more. Lesser known games will have simple instructions integrated for easy learning and use.
A small part will be reserved for the fitness installation which is comprised of metal bars that enable various exercises to be performed. The design aesthetic is minimal. If you would like to see examples online you can enter the keyword “calisthenics” and you will see many iterations of the same principle.
The greenery will be provided through 1 cubic meter large pots with one fruit tree each inside, surrounded by perennial herbs and flowers that do not need to be replanted every single year, simply cut back in Autumn.
I hope this can help you a bit in visualizing the concept.
The artwork will really make this place pop.
Just imagine the drone shots.
Hi Grey very nicely described and I can imagine how it might look like. But maybe a small sketch would make it easier for citizens to understand the idea.
Hello André,
To further explain the initial omission of any visual representation of the ideas:
The art that will cover the floor, with the integrated games on the floor, will be the dominant striking aspect of the place from any angle of view.
The analog games such as a giant chessboard that are integrated will provide the necessary casual entertainment that many people rediscovered during the pandemic.
Drawing the entire artwork would be counterproductive as that would not be what would be painted,
because it should be the artists and citizens that create this space together. The artists for the technical expertise of creation and the citizens to make it their own place with creative elements from their collective creativity.
For the greenery as well. As they are moveable, their placement is highly flexible and not static.
The way public ground surfaces are covered, from the materials, textures and colors, influences how we act and perceive the space.
Does it feel like a parking lot or a place where you would want to spend some time.
But, to give you a sense of birds eye layout, here is an overview of the placement of the various elements previously mentioned. I hope this provides you with a bit more visual clarity.