Written Thesis Abstract

There is a problem in American culture in terms of playtime. Children have opportunities to interact and play, exposing them to visual stimulation at a young age. This allows their imaginations to develop and enhances learning. Currently, the need for visual stimulation as adults is fulfilled by developing and changing technologies: television, computers, video games, and the Internet, all of which are present within the home. This has become our playtime.

Starting the technology that sparked the digital age, the television was invented in 1928. True introduction to American culture came in 1948, when commercial programming was developed after the war ended. The room with the television now served as a place for family gathering, social interaction, and everyday entertainment. The parlor became the television room, and the use of the home adapted to focus around the television. The introduction of computers and video games in the 1980’s and the Internet in the 1990’s proved the house as a typology would now be forever changed. From this point forward, the home was now acting as a place in which play and interaction would occur. Subsequently, the architecture of the home became less of a priority and more of a backdrop to the technologies of the digital age.

The question now becomes, can the architecture of the home be the root of the play itself, joining together program, social and cultural needs, and digital technologies in order to satisfy our visual stimulation needs?