Since the beginning of the 20th century development of great Chinese cities has been influenced by foreign patterns. Houses of different types have been built among the traditional buildings. The areas of Shanghai “concessions” were built in a specific way. After the war Soviet influences were introduced. N owadays international corporations outdo one another in the height and originality of their skyscrapers.

The game is never innocent. N either is architecture. Their innocence is rather that of a weapon. The device is power. G ame and architecture, both retain a strict relationship with the rules (of the game, of the architecture); they are generators of the happening, of openings and uncertainties, of possible (un)expected multiplications. Architecture as a game refers to the life of a work after design and construction, to the ability to be a tool that welcomes life. I t is a way of designing open architectures which recycle the rules (and the memory) by presenting them with the apparent innocence of children’splay, poised between the rationally fragile and the relationally shy.
The topic is expressed through design experimentation on architectures and infrastructures of war that constitute a complex system of visible and invisible elements, palimpsests on the move of both present traces and cancellations. The project suggests a new narration of the E astern military border through the superimposition of heterogeneous contemporary strata. The void of the urban margin constitutes the context for trying to live by playing, by recycling the in between space that counterpoints invisible military fronts and so on.

Drawing serves as a basic tool for recording and immortalizing the original visions of an architect. The architecture so presented is free from any restraints and may express fantasies and dreams of all sorts. Such acts can be referred to as playing with architecture. But is it only playing with architecture or does the imaginary, visionary paper architecture carry deeper meanings? The article presents selected motifs form Alexander Brodsky’s works.

For nearly 150 years, international exhibitions have been the main venue for presenting cultural, scientific, and technological innovations. The architecture of E XPO 2015 exhibition pavilions is a crucial factor in creating the image of countries during a global event. Digitally modelled spaces with complex geometry and forms are commonly used to highlight the ingenuity and the technological sophistication of the exhibitors. E XPO pavilions, as architectural projects, constitute one of the most vivid examples of “playful” modern architecture – architecture created only for a brief period of time, as if only for “make-believe”, but with a powerful media, image and commercial message.

The type and scale of internal diversification are the main characteristics of metropolitan areas. There are some agglomerations where areas differ only slightly and some where territorial disparities are significant. The question is whether this internal diversification is a factor which stimulates spatial and economic development? I n other words, which strategy should be chosen in terms of planning solutions: the egalitarian strategy targeted at equalisation or the one focused on using the competitive advantage of diversification? These questions are related to the problem of diagnosing the diversity of metropolitan areas.

Games and plays of architecture occur in the urban space and in the natural landscape. They are presented based on examples of architecture from the last three decades of the twentieth century, through the prism of doctrines and individual creative attitudes.

The issue is playful, so my choice was to develop it by comparing two highly contemporary themes and absolutely classical types in architecture: the Type Tower and the Type Hall. I nstead of writing to describe concepts and thought, I prefer to show my drawings and designs exploring figures and meanings, memories and experiences.

Visual illusion and optical deception are essential and admissible means in the creation of architectural quality. The users and beholders of architecture expect to be enchanted by the friendly ruses of illusion. The true masters of architecture have always been masters in the game of visual lies and deception. Architectural illusions are used to show us an idealised reality.

The following research has been designed to present solutions for buildings which were created for senior citizens. The purpose of this paper is to select methods that, by using colour, would greatly improve the quality of life for the elderly. Social psychology emphasizes the close relationship between humans and the environment they live in. A safe and friendly space adapted to the specific needs of its users has an important impact on their quality of life. I t also can be stated that there is a close connection and dependence between the quality of the living environment and the quality of life of senior citizens. Colour constitutes a vital component of the living environment design in senior architecture. I t is not only evidence of a building’s aesthetic value, but becomes an essential spatial mark.

The author explains what led him to start assembling an architectural collection of apartments designed by prominent architects in Berlin.

The title makes references to the famous definition of Le Corbusier that “architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in light” and discusses the most interesting examples illustrating this definition from the past and from the present. The special case of G audi’s architecture is examined in detail and subjected to analysis; this architecture can be defined as “game and play” conducted in a masterly manner in the world of elementary solids.

Architecture as an artform is an expression of countless emotions, perceptions and feelings. I t creates an image of a real form and space, which we, the recipients may not only admire, but also use. Through exposing the effects of play with shape, light, colour and detail, architecture draws on the achievements of new technologies that offer increasing opportunities to create architectural shape, taking diverse forms adapted to the prevailing trends and tendencies. More and more visibly, architecture is turning towards nature, using principles of sustainable design and eco-technology; it surrenders to the elements of nature exhibited particularly clearly already in the Secession – the period in which floral motifs dominated both architectural details and painting, sculpture, and ceramics. Art N ouveau generated a new look at the ornamentation of architecture – its detail. Both in the past, as well as today, it is perceived as a distinct work of art – the effect of play with organic shapes, light and colour deciding on their craftsmanship and value. Apart from the detail, the play in architecture is also facilitated by colour, sound and light, as well as interactive forms co-operating with the user.

The topic that was given to the authors – that of the academic problem of playing with and the game of architecture, has been researched and analysed by the author with the aim of affirming the fascinating nature of this issue – one that is a worthy academic field. I t is the issue of the outstanding criterion of evaluating works of architecture. The essay has been composed into four chapters, each examining factors ranging from the more general, broad and theoretical, to the more detailed, specific and empirical. The chapters themselves are four distinct parts that, along with their conclusion, make up a complete and coherent work.

Architectural design takes place in a certain cultural space. I f the space is not expressive enough for the artist, observer or passer-by, architects create their individual worlds where original artworks shaping space appear. And the audience accepts it with understanding.

The contemporary world is full of coexisting different architectural forms whose creation included a game with the viewer/observer among their objectives. The Dutch art historian Johan Huizinga points out that play constitutes the basis for all human activities. The playing, the game becomes an indispensable element of contemporary art, it is an expression of the viewer’s intelligence and the creator’s perversity, together with construction, it creates a new poetics of architecture which is sometimes difficult to comprehend.

For some people a game may be a way of life while others may take life seriously – seeking the meaning of life. For some people life is a phenomenon and a secret whereas for others it is a game that is won by those who guess its rules. Architects in Poland play different games, not only games with architecture but also around it. There are games such as conference games, competition games, media games, games for points, for titles, historical games, serious games, and also possible is to be beyond games.

The architecture of theatre and the scenic urban space, which has always provided a venue for celebrations and been the scene for collective actions, essentially concerns those places that contain their theatricality in the architecture, like all those places whose shapes make the rituals of performance and the event possible by mimicking theatrical forms.

Colour plays a significant role in Mexican culture. O ur study deals with four areas of using colour in a spatial composition on an architectural and urban scale. These are murals, i.e. monumental painting in the structure of architectural objects, colourful traditional and modern architecture, ornamental forms and structures, and current trends in the revalorisation of historical cities.

The essay is about the deep analogies between the world of games and the way architects deal with projects through the discipline of composition. E lements, rules, relationships are devices belonging to both; but also strategy, analysis and most of all imagination are basic instruments for playing games and for designing architectures, as shown in the interpretation of some works by Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier.

The conference, whose main theme for fourteen years has been “Defining the architectural space”, will this year attract participants’ attention with a provocative extension – “games and play of architecture”. From a wide spectrum of thematic approaches related to “games and play” with architecture, the author chose the aspect of the possible threats which may arise if irresponsible or immoral and ideologically determined people dabble in architecture.

The game of architecture determines the game field for thoughts: with shapes, colours, textures, lights and shadows. I t reveals something true just because it is a game. During the game, conceived, imagined world of shapes, is revealed in the presentation. O ne of the possible ways of architectural thinking referred in the text can be found three types of creative process: intuitive, reflexive and behavioural one. Like a sorcerer casting a spell “let it be”, imagination transforms unreal architecture in a mental fact. Thinking of creative minds enabled to create representations, owning to which outstanding timeless architectural works are implemented in the real world.

This essay is the second part of “The responding form 1. Short lecture on architecture” It is aimed at architecture students and all those who ask themselves what is the purpose for which architecture is built and what are the modes of architecture.

There are three links between architecture and music: buildings designed for music; comparing the structures of works of architecture and music; architecture as the subject of lyrics. This paper, which deals with the third link, discusses references to particular building materials, buildings, cities, architects. Architectural themes in songs usually help to express particular values or feelings and are a kind of games and play.

The goal of this paper, in relation to the conference topic, is to show how a female architect was shown in movies from 1960s. The author presents this in two views of the life of women architects: passive – set in the realization of everyday career goals, and creative – set in creating the architecture of the future. He also emphasizes that, in retrospect, the creative attitudes of presented movie heroines are an excellent record of the times, when being a female architect was associated with the choice in the career path of little creative engagement on behalf of creative activity that could not achieve results because of the social reluctance in the time of the Polish People’s R epublic (PRL).

In architecture, the word play is synonymous with composition, the object of which, as Le Corbusier wrote, is the “play of volumes seen in light”. His definition, actually more articulate, precisely defines how this game should be played. An important, implied element is missing. The goal of the composition game, and of architectural design, is always and primarily the definition of places, which is the first and foremost goal of architecture. An educational experiment was devised to explore how the composition game can be used to achieve this goal.

In December 2013 the 68th Meeting of the United N ations named 2015 The International Year of Light-Based Technologies. This fact was to focus the world’s population on the importance of light technology in promoting balanced progress. I n this context, the omnipresent use of light in architecture (the inner and outer buildings space) requires analysis and revision.

The Muses protected movement arts like dance or theatre. The works of architecture remain immobile. The architect might play while designing. He helped to establish the picture of a community bonded by religious or political beliefs. In times of crisis he turned back to nature and experiments. I n our world – dominated by the power of money and technological progress – he must maintain imagination and reliability.

The text characterizes two interdisciplinary projects: the I sle of the Dead and The Momentum. These projects by using new strategies and devices play a game with the landscape.

Some typologies of contemporary residential housing are characterised by unclear or inconsistently applied classification rules, whereas typology, like a game, requires compliance with some rules. The fact of non-compliance with the rules may turn the typology into a meaningless game and deprive it of its seriousness.

How to play the city game in the greatest city in the world? Build, do not ask for anything. And how to locate skyscrapers? Far enough away from each other, to ensure that the worse does not fall on the good one. And what to do when the territory ends? O ccupy another, and call it all Mexico City. And how do you plan the development of this city? Do not plan, development will be faster. And is this city inhabitable at all?

The concept of play in various architectural forms. After a brief introduction discovering the existing relationship, even ironic, between ideas and realization, the paper studies some designs created by Bibiena (around 1709), where games and festivities were the real content of the designed buildings, and something like a gamemachine was the “incredible” way they worked in order to realize their unbelievable achievements.

Play is a human activity which requires the creation of a convention, obeying the rules, and which leads to a result that can be evaluated in the light of established criteria. The rules of games interact with the characteristics of the historical periods in which they arose. The I nformation Age provides tools that facilitate the formalization of perception and representation. The article analyses the impact of this fact on architectural strategies. I t describes the background and nature of information games.

It’s a beautiful game that enables us to create paradoxes, to reconstruct deformed images and to deform properly constructed ones. I t’s beautiful play in which imagination is the way of seeing reality and a form follows a vision, jumping by order of a randomly thrown dice.

Common characteristics to any type of game: entertainment, risk, rules, action, confrontation, strategy, creativity, passion... The exercise of architecture is also a game. However, a form of extreme game for the professional architect is participation in contests. I n these contests, projects should resemble a screenplay, an initial energy capable of generating a process.

What, if any, are the relationships between architecture and games and fun? Are games and fun identical values? Are these phenomena, when they come together, different depending on the specific cultural centres and the passage of time? I n this essay the author tries to answer this question.

The author discusses the interrelationships between play and the art of urbanism focusing on the cluster of nodal places called here “nodes of urbanity”. At the background of Huizinga’s theory of Homo ludens as cultural component, the analysis of these foci of urban life seem to have explanatory value for architectural and anthropological theories of the “Ludic City”. The main points of this conceptual framework are illustrated with two cases from the city of K rakow.

In the process of architectural creation the crucial concern is its impressiveness and subsequent assessment. Hence the search for unique solutions that is typical of our times. Sometimes, playing with originality is fun, – conceiving unusual objects which need not obligatorily follow the Vitruvian principles of durability, utility and beauty. Often, temporality, transience and phenomenality, according to the intentions of the creators, are immanent features of many projects.