Urbanimals, Playable City and LAX
What if our built environment could help us find the beauty in our surroundings and each other?
Urbanimals is an interactive light installation displayed on empty surfaces and transitory spaces in the city. A family of origami-like animals — a dolphin, a kangaroo, a rabbit and a beetle— are designed to surprise and delight unassuming urban commuters by popping up in unexpected locations and engaging with them in motion-responsive play. Dolphin likes to leap together, rabbit is very shy, beetle tries to get his job done while cheeky kangaroo is up for some skipping. Triggered by people passing or stopping, this magically interactive project uses projectors and sensors and stretched across the whole city.
Stirring Our Senses
Drawing inspiration from the characters of these wild creatures, each Urbanimal aims to stimulate the senses, lift our spirits, and engage us in experiencing our surroundings in new ways. The animals are given particular personalities to mirror the diversity of personalities among inhabitants of the city. People are invited to meet Urbanimals in every space of transition and actively sense and participate in the unique playful activity of each creature. By encouraging curiosity and play, they bring to life the mundane and offer passersby a chance to discover the hidden value of the built environment, as well as the humanity in each other.
How it Moves Us, Forward
Through Urbanimals, LAX shows us the importance contributing felt-sense based exchanges to real placemaking in the city. Every intervention creates an embodied memory on the mental map of the city among its inhabitants and all visitors. Imagine if all urban planning projects prioritized evoking expansive feeling states and a magical character into the cityscape, to bring us closer to each other and to ourselves.
LAX
LAX is a design studio focused on evoking emotions through architecture, urban planning, sculptural installations and interactive environments. Founded by Polish architects, Anna Grajper and Sebastian Dobiesz, the studio specializes in placemaking and integrating new, interactive technologies into the urban environment.