A maze in your neighbourhood?

AMAZING LONDON

Making London more playful!

An activity that will appeal to children and adults alike.

Greater London lies across 2012 one kilometre squares, so create a maze in each square – each provides an opportunity for fun, intrige and play that will get people out and about, as families and and as individuals at the same time as “greening” our built environment.

Each maze in each one kilometre square will be less than 2 kilometeres from another maze – an easy distance to accomplish on foot – so one can envisage challenges in which participants can “collect” a number of mazes (that they visit and complete, in a day, in a weekend, in a life time).

In each one kilometre square invite nearby schools to compete to design the maze – this links brilliantly with the curriculum in maths, design & technology, art, geography, sports. Invite the community to identify places for mazes to be erected / grown / developed – link to vacant lots or empty premises via the Development Trust Association’s “Meanwhile” initiative or appeal to landlords directly.

Invite the landscaping, urban design, and construction industries to devise ways in which mazes can be constructed, grown, pre-fabricated and engage schools of architecture and landscape to design how they can be successfully incorporated in London’s urban environment. Have a “show” maze at the Chelsea Flower Show, Ecobuild, Future Cities, Lord Mayor and other such trade or public shows and festivals.

Make mazes highly visible putting them where people can look down on them – the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, beneath the London Eye, in every sports stadium in London – a nice a competition for sports teams to get involved. Mazes could be temporary erected for a day, a weekend, the duration of the Olympics, or may become more permanent structures.

London would be truly AMAZING

This article previously appeared on the Rethinking Cities website