The Urban Conga

The Urban Conga, an award-winning multidisciplinary design studio led by Ryan Swanson and Maeghann Coleman, AIA. Their work focuses on utilizing play methodologies as a tool to create inclusive multiscale spatial opportunities that transform once-overlooked or underutilized situations into stimulating creative outlets that evoke our innate drive to discover, explore, and empathize with others.

The Urban Conga is a Brooklyn, NY-based award-winning multidisciplinary design studio led by Ryan Swanson and Maeghann Coleman, AIA. The studio is comprised of a diverse group of creatives focused on sparking community interaction and social activity through open-ended play. We achieve this by utilizing play methodologies as a critical tool implemented not just in the work itself but in the participatory design process in which the work is created. Our work explores the idea of working with clients to create more playable cities as an ecosystem of inclusive multiscale playable opportunities intertwined with our existing urban fabric. Through this work, we have had opportunities to collaborate with local communities, NGOs, businesses, municipal agencies, and institutions worldwide, delivering multi-scaled urban interventions, playable products, workshops, lectures, development plans, and public policy recommendations. The experiences and spaces we create are just one component of the work we do. The impact of the connections, conversations, relationships, knowledge, and equity that we have been able to spark through these opportunities goes far beyond the physical work itself. Play is our natural driver as humans to discover, explore, and empathize with others. It is universal, and it can be applied as a powerful tool to start bridging divides and breaking inequities within our cities and public spaces. Our work investigates how play can start to exist in everyday spaces at a variety of scales — like public park benches, bus stops, street lights, or just the everyday spaces in-between — turning once overlooked and underutilized situations into inclusive, stimulating, creative outlets for communal connection.