“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”
Play allows us to leave the everyday world and experience something rooted in a childlike nativity and curiosity, enter a different mental state, and express ourselves without being judged. However, everyone should learn all play and no work make us too detached from real issues.
Set in a potential future where drug possession for personal use is decriminalised, and the drug schedules are revised to support harm reduction policy. Ebbsfleet RAVEcovery Centre could provide a haven to everyone, and everything underappreciated. The New Civic would consist of three organisations Clinic for People Who Use Drugs, Ebbsfleet Material Recovery Centre and Rave ‘Recovery Centre’.
Rave took the nation by storm in the ’90s, and the social panic caused by the conservative government and media tarnished its name and reputation. Almost every dictionary would mention drugs in their definition, but rave is so much more. It is about freedom. There are no barriers within rave since there is no authentic rave; each is just as much a rave as the other. The venue would ‘recover’ the name of rave, proving rave is an opportunity to bring people together in a judgement-free zone.
Clinic for People Who Use Drugs would provide support and space for people struggling with drug addiction and educate the residents about the effects of drug use. It is a place of no judgement; people are given all the support and advice they want. According to the 2020 statistic, 1 in 5 young people ages 16-24 has consumed drugs at least once a month. They have a right to know what they take (drug checking facilities) and how it will affect their body. The centre will also provide a space for daily Northfleet NA, AA and CA meetings. Waste Recovery Centre would sort out the rubbish from Ebbsfleet, cleaning the city and provide the jobs. As the Climate Strike spirit grows stronger among the youth, the centre would educate young people how to try and save the Earth.
The project was developed at the University of Westminster.
KOOZ What prompted the project?
OO Our studio was focused on city making and Ebbsfleet, a new Garden City on a 21st-century post-industrial landscape during the first semester. After an extensive collective analysis of various masterplans and the current Ebbsfleet development plan, we proposed our own ideas for 30-minute walkable cities centred around the Ebbsfleet International Station. My group proposed “Playful Ebbsfleet”, a city where everyone is given an opportunity for a playful adventure. When it came to focusing on my own brief, I wanted to create something for young adults (ages 18-25), as so many proposals seem to ignore this demographic. There was a gap for unique civic spaces that engages the creative youth and educates them. I wanted to examine our relationship with play as we got older, how we navigate between responsibility and pleasure, how we resist the temptations of ‘the darker side’ of play.
KOOZ What questions does the project raise, and which does it address?
OO What is play? For me, it is a leisure activity partaken purely for one’s pleasure and joy. Then the question came along, asking to what extend I could bring play into well-established typologies. For example, trying to reimagine a clinic, a material recovery centre, a rave venue and a vast landscape as ‘playgrounds’ for people to come and interact. After loosening the boundaries, I started to examine how all of these elements can come together and unite a large public festival venue with an intimate AA meeting hall. When I found a way to for them to coexist in a modern interpretation of a pleasure garden, I started to test how they can support each other through complex interactions. For example, there could be a shared programme such as educational lectures and drug testing facilities at the rave events and collective post-festival recycling work. One of the crucial questions the project raised was whether or not the places for play, pleasure and self-exploration could and should be fully designed, to what extent should it be open-ended for users to find something personal in it. Well-organised play is never truly fun; there always should be space for spontaneous, ‘unscripted’ ways to find joy.
KOOZ How does the project approach and define notions of play?
OO Play is defined through pleasure in this project. Ethical hedonism is the critical philosophy of the RAVEcovery Centre. Increasing pleasure (one’s or collective) and decreasing suffering determines which action is right. The rightness of the action is determined by its consequences. You can explore pleasure, but you are warned about consequences. If the play does go too far, you are not punished but instead supported on your journey of amending your mistakes. The project is an antithesis to the Pleasure Island donkey scene in the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio. In the movie, the boys have been severely punished for their behaviour with no warning or a chance of redemption. As we get older, we still learn through play and from our mistakes while exploring, but we need a safe space and a support system to improve ourselves. Architecture can facilitate that.
KOOZ What role can architecture play alongside the decriminalisation of drug possession for personal use?
OO It may be controversial, but I believe that decriminalisation for personal use can change the conversation, help us accept people who use drugs and are addicted as people in need of medical help rather than criminals. Architecture can help to provide the much-needed space of support. The drug consumption rooms (DCR) became much more common around Europe; however, they are met with great resistance in the UK and the US. DCR clinics provide a non-judgemental space where people could be accepted and offered help. As a relatively new typology, architects could help create the right environment to support medical improvements.
KOOZ What parameters informed the design of the Ebbsfleet RAVEcovery Centre?
OO My basic philosophy and ethical guidelines were the ‘Peace, Love, Unity and Respect’, as I wanted to revive the original message of the rave culture before it got tainted by moral panic. I wanted to focus a lot on sustainability, both in terms of the impact on the environment and creating long-lasting self-supporting communities. In part of the AA/NA philosophy, the organisation and groups should not rely on external donations to be responsible for their actions and uplift each other. Therefore, all three buildings are interlinked and support each other and the surrounding landscape without needing an external system or institution to support them.
KOOZ What is for you the power of the architectural imaginary?
OO The power of the architectural imaginary is its versatility. You can depict somewhat surreal scenarios and show how different the world could be. I tried to share a particular vision and another state of mind while creating these visuals, from the euphoric state at the festival, quiet, isolated self-reflection in nature to understanding how a distressed high person in DCR would feel. It is a somewhat ethereal world, yet you can make it more believable and bring it closer to our reality with detailed drawings.
Bio
Elena Oliinyk is an illustrator and architectural designer based in London. She graduated from the University of Bath with a First-class Honours degree in Architecture in 2020 and is currently getting her Master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Westminster. Elena lives to challenge the ‘boring’ and the negative connotations of ‘childishness’. Her illustrations are never in shortage of bright colours. In her academic research Elena attempts to shine light on LGBTQ+ influence on urban form. She is also a part-time model maker at AOC Architects.
