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2025 | Professional

French Design Awards Silver Winner

The Shape of Play

Entrant Company

Yumeng Liu

Category

Architectural Design - Pedestrian Plazas & Streetscapes

Client's Name

Kids after schools

Country / Region

United States

Most learning happens inside closed doors鈥攃lassrooms, libraries, studios. But what if education wasn鈥檛 locked away? What if play, creativity, and learning were as open and accessible as the streets themselves?

The Shape of Play is a playscape for the city鈥攁n unfolding, shifting, transforming structure that brings education into public space. Placed in the streets of New York, it is an open invitation: climb, tilt, fold, gather, create. One moment, it鈥檚 a seat. The next, a ramp, a stage, a bridge. No tickets, no time slots, no barriers鈥攋ust play, free and available to all.

And this isn鈥檛 just about fun鈥攊t鈥檚 about who gets to learn, and where. While so many educational resources remain locked behind institutions, The Shape of Play breaks those walls. Kids don鈥檛 just move through the city; they engage with it, manipulate it, and shape it with their own hands. Play here isn鈥檛 a break from learning鈥攊t is learning.

Through folding, balancing, climbing, and adapting, children develop spatial awareness, risk-taking, and problem-solving skills. They don鈥檛 just play on it; they figure out how it works. They turn it into a physics lesson, an art project, a performance stage鈥攚hatever the moment demands.

And because the city is always in flux, this playscape is built to evolve. It is made from recycled, modular components, designed for repair and reuse鈥攝ero waste, infinite possibilities. Over time, it becomes a living archive of play and creativity, shaped by the hands that use it.

The Shape of Play is not a playground. It鈥檚 not a classroom. It鈥檚 something new鈥攁n open, ever-changing learning landscape that belongs to the city, and to everyone in it.

Because learning should be as public, dynamic, and alive as the streets themselves.

Credits

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