Performing Landscape

Recently I was brainstorming on an ideas competition for the Arts Center in Melbourne and exploring the possibility of integrating performing arts opportunities in public space - that the urban landscape can do more to facilitate performing arts than just allowing for enough hardscape space for the Spiegeltent to set up every year. I wondered if there were ways that the Arts Center could engage with the public on a more personal, one to one, basis and with children to ensure that the instituion stays relevant for the next generation. One of the ideas was "performing space", where all the elements in the landscape could be used for "performing", whether that be music, dance, theatre etc. For example, I wanted to redesign the standard green Melbourne street bench into a xylophone that children could play with. The closest realised project that I found in a precedent search was "Railings" by Greyworld, a standard looking railing in London which plays the Girl from Ipanema when you run a stick along them.

Sadly, the project architects I was collaborating with didn't want to hear about such minor details as the street furniture (or for that matter, the landscape) and the ideas were never communicated to the client but it got me thinking generally about how to extend the functions of street furniture, which is a standard public amenity that is installed all over the city. Then I came across this "bouncing bench" project by Bruno Taylor which I would love to specify for the next playground I am designing if its in production by then.



And playful fencing to keep the children in :) via Inhabitat

via pixelsumo