Stampede Park(ing): Calgary as an Urban Playground

The sports district has developed into a common urban condition within cities. It is often idealized as a vibrant hub in the city fabric, when, in reality it at times plays a mediator (and mediocre) part within that fabric. Communal, active, sports-programed space is essential for these interventions - but its execution and implementation is usually subject to, and constrained by, a limited and specific event. These are often touted as hearts or engines of the city, as drivers of development, markers of a city's energy, atmospheric hubs that will activate neighborhoods. If they are so connected, essential, and key to urban and civic space, why are they often so limiting and hindering?This thesis explores - playfully, civically and critically - a sports-based intervention within Stampede Park in Calgary - a closed-off neighbourhood within the city's downtown that finds itself more exclusive that it is inclusive.