Watershed is delighted to announce the winner of the 2015 International Playable City Award, Urbanimals, created by the Laboratory for Architectural Experiments, LAX, based in Poland.
This September and October, a playful pack of wild beasts will appear in unexpected places across the city of Bristol, waiting for people to play with them. Take up the dolphin’s challenge to leap together, chase a shy rabbit down the pavement or skip with a cheeky kangaroo. Lurking behind city walls and hiding in dark corners, Urbanimals are eager to brighten the day. Triggered by people passing or stopping, this magically interactive project will be created using projectors and sensors and will stretch across the whole city.
Judge Richard Roberts from Jason Bruges Studio said, “It was the fresh response to the brief, and the positive impact that these pieces could make to the everyday city journeys that won me over”.
Urbanimals by Lax was selected from 197 applications received from 60 countries around the world, and the installation will be unveiled in Bristol in September 2015. LAX are an experimental design team based in Poland, who describe themselves as practicing ‘at the edge of architecture’, testing the boundaries of urban planning, design, psychology and computation. They will now work with Watershed producers across the summer in Bristol to explore their ideas, developing the technology to bring their vision to life.
“Bringing people together through play in forgotten areas of the city lies at the heart of what we do”, say Anna and Sebastian from LAX, “with Urbanimals we want to highlight the city’s hidden value and treasures inspiring residents to consider their environment in new and unexpected ways, we want to stimulate their senses and inject a sense of excitement and wonder into the everyday urban landscape.”