Matter

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

GRAYSON PLAY-LAB FOR ADOLESCENT EDUCATION

Matter Design

ARCHITECTS
Matter Design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Ally O’Rourke-Barrett, Brandon Clifford

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Grayson School,
and Matter Design., CEMEX, Matter Design.

PROJECT TEAM
Gil Sunshine, Gil Sunshine, Marianna Gonzalez-Cervantes

PARTNER
Cemex

ON SITE CONSTRUCTION
Zach McWilliams, 8 Chestnut

AREA
2480 ft²

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
Radnor, United States

CATAGORY
Installations & Structures, Temporary Installations, Other Facilities

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

The Grayson Play-Lab is a model for integrating play into secondary education. In early childhood, play is dedicated to physical activities such as swings, slides, or monkey bars.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

But young adults deploy their imagination differently; through intellectual challenges, rigorous experiments, and world-building.

This research is dedicated to reconsidering the relationship between play and outdoor education, encouraging the next generation of creative thinkers.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

The play-lab is a scaffold to fuel the imagination of the project-based learning curriculum at The Grayson School.

An otherworldly collection of curious concrete characters is situated in an open landscape. These colossal creatures are unlike other play-structures.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

The recognizable colors, textures, and materials of common play-structures have grown up. A series of details provide anchors to tie rope off to, or receive standard dimensional lumber.

They are engineered to accept the maximum load the students can throw at them, while also flexible enough to allow the students and teachers to fabricate their own extensions — to take measurements, conduct physics experiments, anchor a game, or confirm a trigonometry equation.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

These details are practical as much as they are cryptic, with alignments to themselves as well as the cosmos. These alignments are developed in concert with the curriculum of the school.

Over the course of their education, students are challenged to discover the meaning behind these design decisions, to calculate their coordinates, and understand the logics of how high-design can influence their whimsical but rigorous education.

To spark agency for the students, a family of wooden instruments, called ‘glyphs’, serve as a starter kit to bring the play-lab to life. Reminiscent of a type-set, each is unique, but share properties with their neighbors.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett

These colorful tools have dimensions and forms that suggest a usefulness without overtly prescribing singular functions.

This blending of utilitarian and ceremonial pressures is crafted to inspire a state of world-building. As a system, the glyphs are designed to be expanded as the students develop their own language.

The concept for this play-lab is to create a space that provides a foundation to encourage the development of a world that need not rely on deterministic outcomes.

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Brandon Clifford
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Brandon Clifford

The more time spent with the play-lab leads to a deeper understanding; which in turn, opens up greater discoveries for the students and teachers to unpack.


Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Ally O’Rourke-Barrett
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Brandon Clifford


Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Brandon Clifford
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
© Brandon Clifford


Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
Plan

Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education


Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
Elevation
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
Elevation
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
Elevation
Grayson Play-Lab for Adolescent Education
Elevation

Matter
T +1 212 3432600
Matter
407 Broome St Suite 2A, New York, NY 10013, United States