Play Space
Play Day
A Free Pop-up Play Space at the Gropius Bau
Photo: Suzanna Law
Play, create, laugh, shout – and all this in an exhibition hall? The Gropius Bau invites all children from the age of 2 to do just that. For one day, Suzanna Law from Pop-Up Adventure Play will transform the Resonance Room into a free play space where we will find ways to say “yes”.
A pop-up play space for children opens in the Resonance Room of the Gropius Bau: on this day, the rules normally applied in places where art can be experienced are suspended. Inspired by adventure playgrounds and accompanied by playworkers – educators with a focus on free play – children can let their imagination and creativity run wild while playing. “Loose parts” such as cardboard boxes, tubes, fabrics and paper are available to be (re)used and combined in a variety of sometimes unexpected ways. This is how play becomes rich with possibilities.
The Play Day is a preview of the permanent play space designed by Kerstin Brätsch, the Gropius Bau’s current Artist in Residence. From September, the entire west wing on the ground floor will be given over to children – a pilot project that will grow in the Gropius Bau over the next few years and also extend into the outdoor space.
Children can only take part in the Play Day if accompanied by an adult. On site, trained playworkers support an environment in which children determine their play by following their own instincts, ideas and interests and acting in their own ways and for their own reasons.
Pop-Up Adventure Play began in 2010 with the intention of developing a holistic, low-cost and community-based approach to supporting children’s play. Pop-Up Adventure Play works with a variety of stakeholders in children’s lives, including city parks and recreation teams, art galleries and museum staff, family support organisations and health specialists, as well as parents and children themselves, to improve children’s opportunities for play throughout their lives. They have created the Playworker Development Course, providing introductory training in 25+ countries; produced The New American Adventure Playground Movement How Communities Across the USA are Returning Risk and Freedom to Childhood (2015); and co-hosted the international Playwork Campference (2017, 2019 and 2024).