All just for fun nothing for fun. A bridge contest in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna

The idea of game is related to the one of contest, competition; in a certain way, architecture and construction follow the rule of architectural competitions, as expression of game for the best design. Quoting Huizinga: “When a prize is offered for the best plan for a town hall, or a stipend for the best student in an art-school, it would seem that the desire to stimulate invention, to detect talent and to obtain the best result, is enough. Nevertheless behind all these practical objectives there always lurks the primordial play function of the contest as such. It is impossible to decide, of course, how far the sense of usefulness has outweighed agonistic passion in certain historical instances, as when the city of Florence, in 1418, organized a competition for the cathedral dome which Brunelleschi won out of fourteen contestants. But we could hardly ascribe this glorious work to functionalism. The concept of fun related to the one of game. Is there anything serious (controlled, organized) related to the game? The saying “All just for fun nothing for fun” means that the result of a fun game, conducted under decency, lead to a structured social message, a serious one, that is shared by a community of people, living the same experience. From this point of view the sense a place assumes a standard of quality, as a location where this message has the potentiality to be better delivered. In a sense, the stronger is the transferred message and its meaning, the stronger the quality of the place. This workshop aims to present a case study concerning urban happiness in a public space, that is the organization, an event in the main square of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore. The event, made possible by some of the authors of this paper, consisted in a one day contest for the construction of temporary cardboard bridges in the square.