Donut Smith Jr.
Friendly Ground v002 | Pickleball + Parking + More
Donut Smith Jr. is an example of what happens when we decide that we’re fed up with boring, often completely unuseful parking lots and driveways, and instead dream about how these vast, dispersed, and common spaces can tap into their joyful potential, like, idk, becoming a knock off of everyone’s new favorite game: pickleball! Or, as we call this spot, Donutball!
Friendly Research
Objective: Make a parking lot Friendly! Keep the necessary parameters for a functional parking lot, but also create a joyful, gamified space where people can play when the cars are away!
Strategic Response: The design centers on a gamified, giant pink circle with a void in the center to reveal the underlying asphalt and tiny colorful circles scattered throughout. It is a simple, clean, and easy 2D surface transformation of the parking lot. To complement the ground mural, a family of mobile, playful 3D objects is created that can come and go on a temporal basis. So, when there are cars sleeping in the parking lot, the playful objects hide, and when the cars go away, the mural shines and suddenly the space becomes a magnet for connection, movement, creativity, and PLAY!!!!
Takeaway: Parking lots and driveways are low hanging fruit to transform into Friendly spaces!
PS. pickleball is fun but DONUTball is next level! Pickles are yummy but salty; donuts are tasty and sweet! Check out this fun new game we created here :)