Ryan Swanson, founder and executive director of The Urban Conga, presents a lecture titled "Playable Cities." In his lecture he will talk about the work produced by his award-winning design firm,
 which promotes community activity and social interaction through play. The firm achieves this by creating interactive public interventions and immersive environments that spark creativity, exploration
 and free-choice learning. During Ryan's thesis at the USF School of Architecture & Community Design, he conceived the concept of The Urban Conga with two other colleagues, and soon after 
graduating he quit his job to pursue the concept as a company. Now the firm's award winning work has been featured in The Atlantic, PBS, Fast Company, Geek wire and more. The firm has won the 
International Architizer A+award the last two years in a row for their unique playable outdoor public furniture pieces. 


Ryan is currently working with group of International Creative Producers doing labs in both Bristol, UK and Tokyo, Japan to produce work around the world that will help promote more playable cities. He 
was also selected as a finalist for the Young Guns Award, an award held in New York celebrating innovative creatives around the world under the age of 30.

This lecture is presented as part of the USF School of Architecture & Community Design's Spring 2018 lecture series.