Draft of Prospectus Background

Here is my theories graphic:

Here is the rough draft for my prospectus:

When developing this research question, initial interests stemmed from my perceived lack of interactive opportunities throughout my local urban landscape. I think of when I am hiking: being able to stop to climb a large fallen tree, hop over stones on an even path, or crouch down to feel the moss growing on the precipice of a stream bank. These moments, especially those inspired by natural elements of plants, water, and stone, appear incredibly few and far between when walking through my local urban environment. This initial interest taps on two key theories of my research: adult play and affordances.

The most fundamental and building block of my research rests in the theory of play and how adults play. Numerous studies express the lack of knowledge regarding play and play behavior in adults, calling for further research on the subject. Lack of research often is traced to how the topic is overlooked in many fields, with psychology almost exclusively embracing play in its functionality for development through maturity and deeming it inane afterwards (Van Leeuwen, 2008). However, behaviors of play in adults have and continued to be observed, and have shown to have numerous positive effects on the individual, their relationships, and environment. Adults often describe the most enjoyable element of their romantic relationships as interactions in which they play with their partner (Betcher, 1981; Lauer & Lauer , 2002). Playful behavior in adults can help alleviate daily stress by providing an escape from the hassles, conventionalities, and mundanities of everyday life (Van Fleet, 2015). Van Fleet (2015) observed eight forms and outcomes of adult play: private verbal code, role play, verbal teasing, games, anti-social physical play, pro-social physical play, gossip, and public performance. Another study (Rhea, 2023) polled peoples play preferences, categorizing play as either structured or unstructured, and found that both older and younger adults preferred unstructured play, with the younger adults (18- 39-year-olds) preferring higher intensity activities. Additionally,” “affordances” refers to the “possibility for action” provided to an individual by an environment—by the substances, surfaces, objects, and other living creatures that surround the social actor. Affordances are linked to “sense of place”—the emotional bonds people create to a place—as the initializing factor to creating these bonds. Affordances reveal how place meanings are joint products of attributes of environmental features and the attributes of the individual (Raymond, 2017). Perhaps an urban environment that affords multiple opportunities which includes play may increase the meaning of a place to an individual.

A branch of literature merging both affordances and adult play arises in the form of studies over ludic design principles, especially in the form on urban interventions. Ludic urban interventions are those that encourage spontaneous and undirected playfulness that answers our innate need to explore, discover, experiment and even test our mental and physical boundaries (Donoff, 2017). One study (Donoff, 2014) observes case studies of ludic design  to decipher how it can act as a pedestrian motivator, combining elements of play with elements of walkable urban design to increase pedestrian activity. Ludic design elements reveal how people are innately drawn to novelty, soft edges, nice scents, gentle surprises, and pleasant memories (Donoff, 2017), and promotes the active use of these elements in urban design to increase overall well-being and connection to the built environment. In the same study (Donoff, 2017), the author pushed for opportunities for interstitial play—play that fits seamlessly into the urban structure—not just components of play delegated to playgrounds and plaza spaces. Here, the main street appears as the prime subject for a test of interstitial play elements. It is in the name itself, America’s main streets are engrained in American culture as the primary through-lane, however, main streets are declining as work moves to remote and old office spaces are left empty. Perhaps playful interventions in these by-ways are a key in revitalizing these declining streets and can be used as a testament to increasing playful design components to other interstitial areas in the urban fabric.