Project Proposal—Short Abstract Name: Wan Ping Tay

TEMPLATE

A multigenerational ‘play’ centre: architecture itself is a metaphor of

play.

(1) There exists, in Malaysia, a situation in which less than half of the elderly are at risk for
social isolation and loneliness due to the low frequent of leisure participation especially
recreational physical activities and cognitive activities, …… Although typical senior centres
are offer those activities, age-segregation leads to a stereotypical thinking of old people
clustered together where they socialise. (2) It is clear that this situation is calling for
establishing better human connection between the older population and the wider
community and companionship through active leisure participation for the sake of greater
health-related quality of life and reverse the serotypes of typical senior centres. (3)
Embedded in that call are the opportunities to develop a new type of facility that brings the
old and the young together, to house the programs that best suit the needs of multiple
generations, such as recreational facilities, informal cross-age educational program, games
and entertainments, and to be frequented on a daily or weekly basis. (4) This project
therefore proposes a multigenerational day-care centre – a place for ‘play’ that stimulates
impromptu social interactions where represents the architecture itself is a metaphor of ‘play’
through the expression of form, spatiality and materiality, drawing on the notion of ‘play’
developed by philosopher. (5) If realised, such a project will reduce isolation and loneliness
of old people with companionship of the young, contribute to promote intergenerational
connection and help the young and older adults understand the demands and the strengths
of each other.
[… words]

a vital need for human connection and companionship, and an abundance of unstructured
time.

Research Field(s):
 Social and individual well-being
 …

Typology: Recreation/ Entertainment

Site: Urban area

Project Integrity Tests:

 How will my research field(s) contribute to my architectural responses (made through a chosen
typology and site)? Research into the architecture of recreational and entertainment
environments, Malaysian elderly population, cross-age programs and activities that suits
Malaysian hobbies and cultures, the spatial needs derive from the programs to inform design
decisions.
 How will my architectural responses (made through a chosen typology and site) contribute to
those research field(s)? (What would researchers in that field find to be of interest in my work?)
This project offers a case study of a new community centre that explores human-centred and
event-driven designs, multigenerational interaction and the environment of ‘play’ within an urban
CBD site in Malaysia.
 How will existing architectural knowledge contribute to my work? Investigation on the
philosophy of play by philosophers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Walter Benjamin, and
research into the play tactic in the works of Alvar Aalto.
 How will my work contribute to architectural knowledge? (Seemingly small contributions can,
in fact, mark significant gains.) What, in my work, would interest others in architecture--either
academe or the profession? Architects and other researchers who advocate the tactics of play
and playspace in architecture would likely be interested in the design process and the final
outcomes of this project. This project will contribute to a new multigenerational model of
architecture and program studies.