Architectural Invitations to Everyday Imagination Part 2 Dissertation 2022 Angela Ruolin Lai University of Auckland Auckland | New Zealand ‘Architectural Invitations to Everyday Imagination’ is a speculative proposition that utilises hidden narratives embedded within the existing to uncover new possibilities for spatial experience. Central to this thesis is the experience of the wandering urban pedestrian and the need for play within everyday routines to generate creativity and wonder.The work proposes a system, ‘Playception’, which superimposes playful scenarios within the city. It questions: how could an architectural system intervene with the urban environment to invite new experiences and exhibit playful desires?Using experimental psychogeographic studies and processes of collage and diagrammatic drawings, possibilities hidden in ordinary urban spaces are extracted and re-portrayed as pedestrian-scale interventions. Situated in the CBD of Auckland, New Zealand, ‘Playception’ operates as an indeterminate game, dispensing prompts to motivate interactive journeys. It exhibits a fragmented narrative of the city, between reality and fiction, awaiting to be reconstructed anew by each ambulating participant.The work positions the changing city as an open stage for discovery and play: it invites playful behaviour to reappropriate urban spaces and stimulate social encounters. By using practices of urban walking and everyday imagination, the work allows us to understand how the ordinary provokes wonder and intrigue. Tutor(s) Marian Macken