Play-based Learning Spaces: New Forms for a New Pedagogy

1 AIA LU

There is a growing awareness in western democracies that play is integral not just to the passive well-being of young children but to the way they come to know themselves, the world, and the society they live in. Research has increasingly borne out the effectiveness of play at teaching spatial, social, and emotional skills as well as a connection between narrative play structures and literacy development. As play-based curricula are increasingly adopted by elementary-level teachers, counselors and caretakers, the very tools needed to execute these curricula are changing. It is important in this moment for designers of schools, playspaces and parks to absorb this new educational philosophy and consider the forms that its new toolset might take on. In this seminar we will look at these questions through the lens of two new projects in Philadelphia that engage with and develop this philosophy, pulling in lessons from other significant designs around the globe. The seminar will be lead by members of these projects’ teams: educator Julia Miller, who has developed her Fulbright research on Finnish play-based learning into the Just Play program at North Philly’s People for People Charter School, and architects Allen Pierce and Bunny Tucker who have worked with Julia to develop a play-centered classroom model and are now expanding concepts developed there into urban interventions throughout a “Play District” (currently a finalist for the Kaboom! / William Penn Foundation Play Everywhere grant). We look forward to introducing research and designs and, ultimately, beginning a group conversation about the role of design in advancing this new pedagogy.