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Designing a Space for Play (Not Just for Kids!)
Recently Verne & Wells, a private gaming club in the Seattle area, hosted a game night at Board & Vellum's Below Grade lounge. Not only did we have a ton of fun, but it was a great reminder about the value of taking time to relax in space designed for play, even play for grown ups.
July 14, 2016
Game Night at Board & Vellum
“Play more games.” It’s simple advice, and if you follow it, you’d be surprised what you might discover. At Board & Vellum last week, we did just that as we held our first Board Game Night in our aptly named lounge, ‘Below Grade.’ We recently started working with Verne & Wells, a private gaming club in the Seattle area, to design a new lounge and gaming spaces for their club expansion. Being the awesome group they are, they offered to come out to our place, and introduce us to a dozen or so of their favorite games. (Adult beverages may have also been enjoyed.)
During our game night, Verne & Wells taught us just how relaxing and rejuvenating playing games can be. Whether it’s a simple 15-minute card game, or a highly advanced strategy game that goes all night, games lure us into a made-up fantasy world filled with arbitrary rules, faraway places, and imaginary conflicts. On top of it all, we get to take our friends with us.
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Let the games begin!
It was not even a half hour in, and we were immersed in our games, laughing and scheming, trying to beat out each other in order to win our imaginary quests. In the midst of our fooling around, we realized how busy we had been and how closely we’d been gripping the work in our hands during a big deadline week. During this much-needed chance to unwind, it helped tremendously to be in our own space. ‘Below Grade’ at Board & Vellum is a flex space by day, but many evenings it becomes our de facto living room, a place where we relax and blow off steam. The design of that space reflects us and how we at Board & Vellum kick back together. How we play as a community is just as important as how we live and how we work.
Designing for Playfulness
The design of a space reflecting how we play isn’t as simple as a ensuring there is a table to play on and shelf to store your games (or toys, or trophies, or liquor), though it doesn’t have to be complicated. We spend a lot of time in design thinking about comfort or productivity, but playfulness often gets overlooked.
Ask yourself:
- What colors make you smile?
- What kind of places make you laugh?
- What kind of floor did you sit on when you played as a child?
- What kind of space makes you feel free to be yourself?
Whatever the answers, design can celebrate the times we goof off, play Scrabble, and laugh our way through a night of Cards Without Humanity. The third places beyond our home and our office can help us bring out a part of us that needs to play.
As we embark on this adventure to design the new space for Verne & Wells, we will be learning about the community we design for, and what makes them unique. Their new space will reflect the way they play, and for Verne & Wells, playing is much more than just a hobby. Tabletop gaming culture is on the rise, not just in Seattle, but around the globe. Popular online series such as Wil Wheaton’s ‘Tabletop’ and public spaces here in Seattle such as Gamma Ray Games are reflections of the resurgence of tabletop gaming in popular culture, and the mixture of café/retail/gaming as a commercial interior concept is growing in popularity.
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Jeff and Tina figure it all out.
No matter what your game is, anyone can have a space that reflects how you play. It doesn’t have to involve an architect or designer: just a little bit of creativity and reflection on how you play together as a community or family goes a long way. We know that after our experience with Verne & Wells, we at Board & Vellum will certainly be playing more games. Take our advice: you should too!
