Bureaucracy’s rigid structure lends itself to a sterile, inefficient, and confusing procedure – propagating both political and emotional damage. This bureaucracy of confusion exasperates existing inequalities in America. At the center of downtown New York, 33 Thomas Street – the AT&T Long Lines office and alleged NSA surveillance site – embodies this red tape bureaucracy. Reinforced to withstand nuclear warfare, the 550 feet tall, concrete, windowless structure emphasizes bureaucracy’s relentless rigidity. In an effort to soften the building, Playtime is a speculative partial reconfiguration of the office into a play space for children. Through chipping away at the building’s impenetrable structure, the proposal inserts inflatable architecture within the openings. Featuring a bouncy house, inflatable pool, nap pod, and library, the daycare weaves and pierces through the mundane office. Juxtaposing the grid and blobs, bureaucrats and children, order and chaos, gray and pink – this proposal offers disordered transparency as a critique of bureaucracy (and architecture’s) dogmatic nature. Operating at once in parallel and in opposition, Playtime aims to soften 33 Thomas Street’s rigid fabric into a playful experience.
