BLUE DOTS

Social Infrastructure No.40
Almond, New York, 2025

Recipient of a grant from the KABOOM! ‘Play Everywhere Challenge’ sponsored by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation’s ‘Built to Play’ initiative, and further supported by the Alfred-Almond Community Sports Association

Three blue rubber-surfaced dots are scattered in the landscape, each featuring a sculptural assembly of powder-coated steel pipe referencing Aldo Van Eyck's popular tumbling bars. Van Eyck was an important figure in the history of architecture and play who designed 700+ playgrounds on empty lots in Amsterdam after WWII. He popularized many elements that have since become mainstays of conventional playground design. ‘Blue Dots’ pays homage to this history through playful combinations and re-arrangements of these elements in unconventional and surprising ways. The varying sizes correspond to multiple body sizes encouraging use by kids, teens and adults. The de-familiarization, through fun arrangements and bold color, of this otherwise simple, normative equipment fosters open-ended/non-prescriptive and imaginative play.