Logan Mendes

Paidic Play: An Antithesis to Mies

Environmental Design

2026

The root of the city and its primary focus is LABOR. This singular focus extends from the physical environment onto the city dweller themselves. It has become our current system. A system that traps and disallows methods and thoughts that extend beyond the current mode of existence - capitalism. Little to no free time is present, disallowing hobbies, community relations, or collective thought to form. To release us from this system, play is substituted for labor. Play’s inherent spontaneity, disorder, and ambiguity shocks users from their surroundings and their mindset, shifting them into a new paradigm.

“Through looking at the penultimate building of control - the office tower, pioneered by the god of control, the architect Mies van der Rohe, this thesis breaks apart the constraints of control by employing a method of play. In this proposed project, a troupe of 'activators' will occupy 4 central floors of Mies's TD Tower in Downtown Toronto, and construct a series of structures meant to reprogram the employees within the office tower. By using a method of Disrupt, Disorient, and Shock, the office workers will be deposited into the intervention by random throughout the day, made to make their way through the maze of mirrors, and venture into the five unknown and fantastical spaces of play. By constructing spaces that exist within the real world and flipping them on their heads in an otherworldly manner, the users will be able to enact different realities and question their current system of control. And by continuously participating in the spaces of play, the office workers will begin to deprogram from their culture of labor and become reprogrammed into a culture of play.”