The "AA Visiting School São Paulo 2021 – Play Structures" will be the first part of a two-workshop series led by architect and professor Kristof Crolla, held in a hybrid virtual-in-person format. This first workshop aims to explore the combination of bamboo construction and digital technologies, building on digital design research used to implement bending-active bamboo shell structures. The course will build upon previous work conducted by the Building Simplexity Lab at the University of Hong Kong, aiming to combine digital architectural exploration with real-time physical simulation software. The goal is to generate physical prototypes of these lightweight, low-tech construction systems within the Brazilian context, with the support of the digital design experts and the team at SUBdV.
The second part of the workshop, scheduled for July 2022, will involve constructing these bamboo structures at a 1:1 scale, inspired by those temporarily built on the Minhocão during the "AA Visiting School São Paulo 2019 – High Line" workshop. This intervention unexpectedly encouraged both adults and children to play, fostering an awareness of the urban territory and a collective sense of citizenship and community. Students in the July 2022 workshop will work on creating new playful structures for the reappropriation of urban space in downtown São Paulo.
