Playful Spaces was among the first design studios of the NuVu High School year, and its aim was to use play as a way to promote the NuVu educational model. This truly immersive experience proved a great opportunity for our students to not only produce an intergenerational popup workshop with the Eliot School in Boston, but also a way to practice our educational model through the creation of personalized playscapes.

Coach Ryan Furguson explains there were three components that made up the overall structure: the creation of a play structure that can be easily deployed; one that would be participatory and engaging; and that whatever they created, the end user would be the focus.

To kick off the project, NuVu students facilitated a workshop with the Eliot School in the North End of Boston, to garner feedback on play structures and play in general. “The students put together the workshop, and listed various steps to facilitate conversations and actually got Eliot students building little models of playgrounds that could form the basis for their own project ideas,” shares Ryan. “There's a lot of scaffolding built into that, and a big part for the NuVu students was to learn that whatever they create is really meant for the end user—the client.”

Another element of Playful Spaces was promoting the NuVu creative process and educational model. “That required a lot of abstract thinking on the student's part to try to translate the design experience or the creative experience into a play experience,” explains Ryan. “How can we draw parallels between those things and in an indirect, abstract way, teach kids of this age—and potentially their parents, if they're coming to an event—what the creative process looks like through play. We used play as a vehicle to discuss those ideas and discuss that process.”

The biggest takeaway, says Ryan, was the empathy needed to listen to the Eliot students without projecting their own ideas into the mix too early. Learning to put aside their own assumptions on what would work or be fun, the students learned to really listen to the younger students’ ideas for what kind of play they wanted to actually play. Basically, as Ryan says, the students “developed a feel for a user group that's not themselves, and learned how to listen.”

A key component of any NuVu design studio was the fabrication side of things. With many newer students unfamiliar with digital fabrication, Ryan says this project gave them exposure to the laser cutter, the 3D printers, and the physical manufacturing of their ideas. “Thinking about designing at a larger scale and the challenges involved in supporting someone’s body weight or structural integrity — these were the topics where the students really had to develop new skills.”          

Stay tuned for winter session, where students will take their digital renderings and prototypes back to the Eiliot school to test, iterate, and see what Playful Spaces they can create.

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