LAB for Play Design
Ambition and method
In the LAB for Play Design, we showcase and explore the potential of play across various professional domains. Our ambition is to establish and support a community of play that not only inspires academic expertise and creative expression but also fosters constructive dialogue and innovative solutions.
We have a strong belief in play and its impact on us as individuals – both intrinsically and as a catalyst for creativity and problem-solving. Therefore, we integrate playful approaches as an active and integral part of the design process.
In collaboration with businesses, organisations, and institutions, we aim to promote a playful society that encourages creative expression at all levels.
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Head of LAB for Play Design
Playful Learning
Even though design for play is noted for enhancing creativity and satisfaction among children and students, its role in pedagogical contexts other than daycare and pedagogue education is often overlooked. Our research aims to explore how play-oriented design can lead the way into the unexplored territories of pedagogy and promote engagement and collaboration. Introducing play designs across pedagogical domains aims to structure practices and support pedagogical professionals in prioritizing play.
Playful Attraction
Incorporating opportunities for playful inquiries enhances chances of meaningful, immersive experiences that reflects back on identity, life and society. Museums, Libraries, Experience Centers and Festivals can spark life into this in diversified ways. Playful forms and practices combined with story-making and story-making techniques can lead to fascinating experiences that allows for deeper levels of meaning-making.
In the five-year Playful Attraction Programme, we collaborate with museums, libraries, and experience centers, that can demonstrate a high potential, unique place-based DNA and with intentions to create the means for playful, meaningful experiences. We combine development processes with research investigations through a group of highly skilled designers, experienced leading researchers, and talented Design-for-play students.
Playful Care
The Playful Care programme explores the role of play in relation to healthcare and well-being. Through design we develop research, methods, and interventions that integrate play into care practices and investigate how play design fosters emotional resilience, enhances communication, and supports healing in diverse health contexts. We aim to create evidence-based, playful solutions that empower patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, and participatory approaches, the research and development program seek to shape future care environments where play is recognized as an essential element of human health and dignity.
Play-centered Design Approaches
Play-centered Design Approaches are methods, techniques, and tools that enhance our ability to explore and develop play design. Through facilitation and reflection and by challenging the existing, we support experimental play design processes and strengthen the connection between research and practice. Our close collaboration with users, practitioners, and stakeholders helps to enhance the professionalism and quality of playful processes, designs, and experiences.
LAB for Play Design
LAB for Sustainability and Design
