The objective of this diploma project is the design process of unconventional play spaces, using as our case study the city of Larissa while we focus on the participatory design methods. Firstly, we analyzed the existing network of playgrounds and investigated the circumstances and the way they are constituted. Furthermore, a questionnaire was created, addressed to both children and adults, in order to make clear how various users perceive places for playing in urban and sub-urban environments.

Practically speaking, we designed, organized and conducted a four-day workshop for children entitled “Living/ Playing Ground” in collaboration with the Department of Cultures and Sciences of the Municipality of Larissa  for the annual Festival Pinios 2016, located at the riverbed of river Pinios. The materials that were used were tires, wood and ropes taking advantage of the morphology of the site and the proximity to nature. The workshops were inspired by affairs associated with the notion of playing (rotating- swinging, balancing- sliding, listening, climbing); each one of them corresponded to a box containing different materials. At this event, nineteen non-deterministic ephemeral constructions were created.

After completing the workshop, a file was assembled containing the analysis of both the questionnaires and creations of the workshop as long as our recorded observations. Finally, we seek to create a strategy to reform this network of spaces; a toolbox including spatial elements expressed in scale 1:50 with a range of experimentation in form and materiality. To make it clearer, the final proposal is not referring to a unique composition, but targets to a model-based framework of creating variations through dialogues and actions.