Play with Nature by DL Atelier: An Interactive Urban Installation in Shanghai

In Shanghai's vibrant urban landscape, DL Atelier's Play with Nature installation stands as an invitation to rediscover childhood joy through a blend of interaction and design. Conceived by lead architect Yang Liu, this 2023 project transforms a simple playground element—a swing—into an evocative installation, encouraging visitors to embrace the tension between risk and freedom. The installation highlights DL Atelier's focus on creating memorable public spaces that interact dynamically with their surroundings, allowing city dwellers to momentarily reconnect with a sense of play.

Revisiting Childhood: The Power of Play in Public Spaces

Play with Nature features a bold steel structure resembling a stone stage, split into two complementary shapes: one round and soft, the other sharp and angular. These forms signify both stability and fragility, capturing the dual nature of the swinging experience—oscillating between calmness and thrill. Set against the hard ground, with only the nearby river offering a soft, scenic contrast, the installation turns swinging into an experience that blends joy with a sense of vulnerability. Here, the pusher and the swinger each play a role, both feeling the push and pull of gravity as spectators look on.

Designing Tension and Connection

The installation’s swing becomes a stage for spontaneity, inviting visitors to let go of daily concerns. The juxtaposition of safety and thrill in this installation embodies an attractive tension that resonates with people of all ages, symbolizing how, at any age, play can foster both joy and contemplation. Swinging becomes more than a childhood activity—it becomes a meditative experience, evoking nostalgia while connecting participants with others in shared, unguarded moments.

Reflection on Life and Fleeting Encounters

The swing serves as a metaphor for life’s transient connections, where timing, direction, and force impact whether paths cross. For those swinging, each rise and fall embodies the highs and lows of relationships, reminding us that while encounters may be temporary, they are no less meaningful. This reflection on time and fate resonates as a reminder that life’s connections and experiences should be embraced fully, even if they are destined to end.

A Celebration of Freedom in Urban Design

DL Atelier’s Play with Nature installation not only celebrates the spirit of play but also demonstrates how urban design can incorporate elements of freedom, connection, and nostalgia. As visitors leave the installation, they carry with them a renewed sense of gratitude for life’s simple pleasures and fleeting joys, encouraging a mindset that celebrates life’s journey.

Play with Nature encapsulates DL Atelier’s unique approach to urban spaces by making play and human connection the focal points of the experience, challenging the notion of public space as purely functional and inviting all to enjoy the whimsy of design.

All photographs are work of Yumeng Zhu