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“Play is how we give permission,” says Vitor Freire, co-founder of the Amsterdam-based studio Imagination of Things. “Permission to challenge what’s fixed, rehearse what doesn’t exist yet, and close the distance between people who wouldn’t otherwise meet.”

Freire and co-founder Monique Grimord take play seriously and, in a new project, their studio created a vast repository of 169 artworks, designs, games, and more that have offered an unexpected encounter with imagination and joy. From Rael San Fratello’s award-winning “Teeter-Totter Wall” to the healing Wind Phone project to a 12-foot puppet walking the world, Unruly Play is a multi-decade archive of participatory projects, public spaces, and digital creations that invite surprise and camaraderie.

“Our collaborators have always asked us where our ideas come from,” Gimrod says, “and the truth is that they come from references that rarely talk to each other—it can be a seesaw through a border wall or a phone booth connected to the dead… We wanted to create unusual dialogues and support new creative practices, and Unruly Play was our answer for that.”

Fully interactive, the project is searchable by theme or browsable through a shuffle feature. To dive deeper into the power of play, check out this compendium of artist-designed spaces.

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