pARC was designed to serve as an open-ended programmable space for the community of Chapel Hill and the Ackland Art Museum located at the University of North Carolina. The Urban Conga studio designed the spatial intervention through a series of participatory design workshops with community stakeholders and museum representatives. The feedback and input of the community and museum representatives lead to the final design of the space and input on future public programming. The Ackland Art Museum is a free museum in Chapel Hill that hosts a surplus of diverse programming within its doors, but it seemed many community members were unaware of the museum and what it had to offer. pARC was designed to serve as a bridge to connect the museum to the street.

Serving as a programmable extension to the conversations, events, teachings, and programming that currently exists within the doors of the Ackland Art Museum.

The design shows how play can be utilized as a tool in the democratization of art institutions by taking art off the pedestal and allowing people to take ownership of the work and space. It invites people up off the street and into the museum that might have once never felt comfortable entering the space. The installation becomes a transformative communal platform for all users to engage with the museum, university, and each other in new ways.

The design of pARC both mimics and contrasts the Georgian-style architecture of the museum. The design takes this symmetrical colonial composition and breaks it into a series of interconnected arcs. These series of arcs appear to grow up from the ground to frame out various social spaces that allow the users to put their own identity onto the work, the museum, and the surrounding space. pARC becomes a flexible communal space evoking endless ways to play, gather, perform, teach, converse, or even take a nap. The spatial gesture takes on the user's identity and utilizes its playable design to break down social barriers and spark communal connection within the space. The color of the work was designed in coordination with the rebranding of the Ackland to help draw people into the museum and serve as a connector to their new signage as well.

The work utilizes light both during the day and at night as a tool to evoke play and wonder into the space. During the day, the user can interact with the sun to cast shadows onto the panels or shift the colors reflected within the space. This interaction sparks a connection between the person and the sun and shows how their actions begin to create a reaction within the space. At night this same effect is created through the use of red, green, and blue lights that allow the user to color mix with their shadows on the panels. The shadow play on the work becomes another way that the user can begin to play with the work, space, and others.