LAB for Play and Design
Ambition and method
In the LAB for Play and Design, we showcase and explore the potential of play across various professional domains. Our ambition is to establish and support a community of play that not only inspires academic expertise and creative expression but also fosters constructive dialogue and innovative solutions.
We have a strong belief in play and its impact on us as individuals – both intrinsically and as a catalyst for creativity and problem-solving. Therefore, we integrate playful approaches as an active and integral part of the design process.
In collaboration with businesses, organisations, and institutions, we aim to promote a playful society that encourages creative expression at all levels.
Playful Learning
Even though design for play is noted for enhancing creativity and satisfaction among children and students, its role in pedagogical contexts other than daycare and pedagogue education is often overlooked. Our research aims to explore how play-oriented design can lead the way into the unexplored territories of pedagogy and promote engagement and collaboration. Introducing play designs across pedagogical domains aims to structure practices and support pedagogical professionals in prioritizing play.
Playful Care
Play is a powerful tool for transforming healthcare spaces, and the integration of play into healthcare practices is a dynamic process, blending local expertise with international perspectives. When we push to structure and standardize playful approaches through design thinking and design methodology, we do so with the goal of creating healthcare environments that meet the physical needs as well as support the emotional and psychological well-being of young patients, setting a global standard for pediatric care excellence.
Play-centered Design Approaches
Play-centered Design Approaches are methods, techniques, and tools that enhance our ability to explore and develop play design. Through facilitation and reflection and by challenging the existing, we support experimental play design processes and strengthen the connection between research and practice. Our close collaboration with users, practitioners, and stakeholders helps to enhance the professionalism and quality of playful processes, designs, and experiences.
Playful Attraction
Incorporating opportunities for playful inquiries enhances chances of meaningful, immersive experiences that reflects back on identity, life and society. Museums, Libraries, Experience Centers and Festivals can spark life into this in diversified ways. Playful forms and practices combined with story-making and story-making techniques can lead to fascinating experiences that allows for deeper levels of meaning-making.
In the five-year Playful Attraction Programme, we collaborate with museums, libraries, and experience centers, that can demonstrate a high potential, unique place-based DNA and with intentions to create the means for playful, meaningful experiences. We combine development processes with research investigations through a group of highly skilled designers, experienced leading researchers, and talented Design-for-play students.
LAB for Play and Design
