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Ping-pong
2005
University of the West of England
I worked with first year architecture students at the University of
the West of England on an exploration of the relationship between activity
and architecture. For two days the building in which they study became
a playground for the pursuit of knowledge. Furniture was moved aside
and we worked on the floor. The accepted understanding of the building
was questioned through the introduction of alternative behaviour and
activity. Each student was invited to design and make their own ping-pong
bat from a selection of materials provided. Some students resorted to
the conventional round-bat-with-handle format; others were more adventurous
designing elongated paddle bats for extra reach, netted rackets for increased
bounce, and propellant head and foot extensions.
Fifty ping-pong balls were introduced, and in the lack of any table,
the building, with all its idiosyncrasies became the limitation and liberty
for the game. The participants ‘played’. They devised their
own structures and rules; responding to the spatial arrangement of the
building. They speculated on height, width, depth, and surface quality;
gambling on the speed and regularity of automatic doors. No space was
immune to their explorations; the lift, the stairwell, the interconnecting
floors all came under scrutiny and yet were simultaneously shaping this
extraordinary game of ping-pong. And the architecture was ‘remade
over and over’; each time a previously unnoticed detail was highlighted;
each time a wall, ceiling or floor became embroiled in a new set of rules;
each time an unknowing visitor experienced the building’s apparently
chaotic new use.
