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Future Forum's young research fellow, Prak Norak was published in Kiripost on June 16, 2024. Check out the original article HERE, and read it below!
When I was a child, going to a playground on Sunday was not only an escape from studying but a chance to meet young people who were otherwise strangers to me. These kids were not from my school nor did they live near me yet we are bound to one another through these encounters at the playground. In fleeting moments, we felt connected to one another through play.
Now, as a college student, when I go to a park, my chances of interacting with strangers are more rare. I somehow find it awkward to engage with another ‘stranger’ even if we are the same age. Strangely, I am more comfortable talking to the ‘Num Banchok’ vendor about the weather than I am talking to students of the same school at a park.
What has been lost to me also, as I have grown up, is the playground. As a young adult there are very few activities for me to do in a public space besides sitting, eating, buying, or bringing my own sports equipment to play with.
In contrast, older people can be seen going to these spaces more often to kick shuttlecocks or to jog. Even more interesting, is that they seem to be able to talk more freely with strangers their age than I am. Or when teenagers go to a park almost every single day to play mini-soccer. Why? Because of ‘activity’ and ‘play’. Yet to be there, they have to bring their own equipment or create their own activities.
What Phnom Penh public spaces lack are built-in play space for strangers to engage with one another and for people who may not be able to afford to bring their own equipment. Play is a necessary element of public spaces and can be a bridge for social bonding between otherwise disconnected citizens. It is also a tool for social inclusion that attracts people of different age groups to the space and a way to sustain the economy of various park vendors.
A total of 15 years ago, I would beg my parents or grandparents to go to Wat Phnom to see elephants, and monkeys and especially to play at the playground. I never got bored of going to Wat Phnom.
Then, 15 years later, as an independent young adult, I am able to go there any day I’d like to yet rarely do I find myself going there. The same can be said for many other people my age. Wat Phnom now remains primarily a ceremonial place with occasional joggers and tourists.
What attractions could we design to bring young people like me back to spaces like this again?
Cambodians clearly want to play
There is something uniquely Cambodian about communal games. Consider Khmer New Year, and the sense of community its traditional games create. Games like Bos Angkunh, Teanh Prot, Veay Ka’am and more, as well as the powder and water fights, clearly demonstrate the ways play brings people together socially and physically in a way that feels incredibly special.
For some, this playing evokes a sense of national pride and is a prime example of how play is about more than just fun, it’s about community-building as well.
It’s clear that even beyond Khmer New Year, there’s a real interest in playing in Phnom Penh. If you go to Independence monument in the evening, you’ll see many adults lined up playing badminton with no net, and many young adults and teenagers playing barefoot sidewalk soccer with makeshift goals. If you go to Olympic Stadium you will see that the facility’s outdoor volleyball courts are hugely popular.
At the moment, in many of these spaces where people play, they do so in an ad hoc manner. While this type of spontaneous play is valuable, what if Phnom Penh’s public spaces had more built-in, dedicated space for these games for visitors of all ages to play?
For instance, would it be possible to add badminton nets for those who play at Independence monument? What if the riverside promenade included infrastructure for those who play pick-up soccer, including goals and delineated space? For older or less physically active visitors, these public spaces might add seating and tables with built-in chess boards.
It’s important to note that when public spaces flourish, the visitors and players aren’t the only ones who benefit, so do the local businesses and the street vendors.
‘Play’ can boost the economy of street vendors
Simply put, when more visitors flock to public spaces, street vendors gain customers. If more of our public spaces were oriented around play, perhaps we might even expect vendors to adapt their wares in response.
In popular parks, street vendors are a common sight and many in number. The problem, however, lies in the fact that they often sell the same wares. Should they orient their businesses around different games in the space, they would gain variety and be able to sell unique products.
Let’s say a vendor can additionally add hand-carved chess sets to their wares near the chess area or shuttlecocks near the shuttlecock-kicking space. Near play areas, they could also sell drinks to thirsty players. While some games could even be initiated by the vendors themselves.
Not only are their wares now oriented toward the sports and games of the space but they might even be incentivised to maintain the game pieces and the designated game areas.
From citizens to street vendors, playgrounds for all ages can become a social knot tying the city together.
Play spaces in practice
“Play” has been acknowledged and has been implemented in some other cities around the world. One such case is the Block Party temporary project in Boston that was made as interactive puzzle-like pieces. Children and adults alike were invited to build fictional Martian houses for Mars colonization. The pieces can be assembled and disassembled in infinite ways.
What is even more inspiring is that Block Party is merely one of many other projects done by the Department of Play. This Boston-based organization was formed to create temporary play in the city or neighborhood border zone as a way to connect citizens together. Which reinforces the importance of “play” as a social bonding device. Their activities range from building snow castles to short puppet-movies showing at crosswalks.
Another such case of play comes from Australia in the form of musical seating. The project is called HEXADECA by Pulsing Heart studio. The installation consists of 16 seats that can be spun and as they spin, they play the music of various instruments. 16 seats with 16 instrumental sounds that when all of them are spinned simultaneously, would trigger an orchestra of its own. Its popularity has prompted its installation in various locations from Adelaide to Melbourne.
Whereas in Phnom Penh, we could even see an attempt at this play space being integrated into a rooftop of FunMall. The whole mall is filled with playful color but at the very top we see some elements of paint encouraging people to interact with. And there is even a slide for mall goers to take a swoosh down. Or if you’re into sports, there is a soccer arena and basketball courts.
However, in FunMall case, the interaction between strangers is still limited to the sports section. This is often due to a lack of other interactive games that put strangers together other than basketball. Still, these play elements prompted regular visitors to the space every week and somehow weaved public play into an attraction and an identity for the mall.
A playground for all ages can be a social knot for the city
Play is what brought us together when we were children. At a playground, play happens spontaneously. Games help us to form new groups, and new bonds with strangers. Opportunities for Cambodians of all ages to play, like Khmer New Year, prove just how powerful a force play can be to create joy and to create bonds between people.
Which is why we need to expand our collective sense of play beyond the weeks of Khmer New Year, and bring it into our daily lives and our public spaces on a more permanent basis. To replicate these kinds of moments and spread their positive impacts, we must create more places where play can happen.
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