Today?s children are the adults of the near future, and giving them the experimental spaces they need to stimulate their imaginations could very well help us transform the world for the better. With ?Landscape for Play,? London-based Aberrant Architecture inserts a colorful miniature city into the Matadero Madrid cultural center, inviting ?spontaneous and unregulated play? inspired by the architectural language of great Dutch playground designer Aldo van Eyck, who designed and built more than 700 playgrounds throughout Holland.

The idea is to allow children to safely interact with urban environments on their own terms, giving them age-appropriate spaces adjacent to important cultural spaces for adults. Set within the Intermediae exhibition space, the leisure installation features bold geometric shapes in a rainbow of vivid hues that contrast with their industrial surroundings, which themselves are part of a reclaimed slaughterhouse complex.
But it?s not just for kids, explains Kevin Haley, co-founder of Aberrant Architecture. Adults can interact with it as well, helping their children explore, learn, and play as they go. The purpose of the space is to explore how art can help propose new models for inclusion and coexistence within cities.

?To the question of how we can transform the urban space through play, Aberrant Architecture replies with structures, shapes, and colors that invite children of all ages to use this new place in an imaginative way,...