Nooks

Playsculpture, Lyndonville, NY, 2019

Recipient of a grant from the KaBOOM! ‘Play Everywhere Challenge’ sponsored by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation’s ‘Built to Play’ initiative, and further supported by the Lyndonville Central School District and Goric

‘Nooks’ is a playful sculpture made by stacking two custom-cast recycled rubber elements. The blocks are arranged in a sinuous configuration that allows for multiple occupations by different people at the same time. The familiar soft rubbery surface is an instant reference to the play potential of the structure and the layering lends itself to a stepping arrangement that intuitively prompts climbing. At the same time the installation is non-prescriptive and can equally be used for other games and forms of creative play, but also for sitting for children and adults alike. We ran a series of workshops with 175 students in grades 2-6 who used scale models of the blocks to create different configurations. We carefully analyzed the results and the final arrangement reflected a synthesis of their best ideas. 

These rubber blocks are available in North America as ‘Curvy Blocks’ through Goric and as ‘S- and C-bricks’ in Europe from Euroflex.