Monstrum Playgrounds

(Love the height of that entry! Most playground steps are so low that kids will try to take them two at a time to make their own challenge, which is actually less safe.)

In the playscapes of Danish firm Monstrum (translation: monster), boats tilt at crazy angles, wrecked planes lie broken in half, playhouses provide escape from gigantic spiders, and hidden portals lead to the belly of a whale. These are playgrounds that don't shrink from challenging children either physically or mentally.

There is a sense of thrill and danger that most modern playgrounds lack, provided not so much through physical challenges--though the off-kilter angles do create unique play experiences--as through the playground's imaginative story. The strong forms manage to escape the 'cuteness' that can plague story-based playgrounds, and their use of wood is exemplary. Great work.

Many more photos on their website...it was hard for me to choose. [Thanks Ole!]

Parque Gulliver, Valencia Spain, 1990

Gulliver's body morphs into slides, ramps, stairs and caves, scaled so that visitors are the size of the Lilliputians. A joint project by architect Rafael Rivera, artist Manolo Martin and the designer Sento.

Submitted by bianca, who is embarking on her own playground designs in Spain. [Thanks and good luck, bianca!]

"Night Playground", Peter Doig, 1997

sold this summer at Christie's for $5,016,420.

Cornish Megaliths for Camden Playgrounds

The supplier of the huge boulder that serves as the 'Meteor' in the previously-blogged Cantelowe's park 'storyscape' kindly sent some photos of its installation, which was quite a feat.

More photos of megaliths on their website...I like that they are letting the children draw with chalk on them. And how much better to have a real climbing rock instead of an artificial climbing wall: "glaciated and weathered Cornish granite boulders are uniquely suited to Playbuilders as they have a natural non-slip surface."

[Thanks, John!]

City Museum, St. Louis, Bob Cassilly, 1997

I like all of the playgrounds I post on the blog, but this is the first time I thought I might need to relocate to be near one...thanks to reader Jeff for letting me know about St. Louis' City Museum. From their website:

"Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions'. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know," says Cassilly. "The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, 'Wow, that's wonderful.' And if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving."

Wow, that's wonderful.

Kiwanis Park, Paul Horne, Pittsboro, North Carolina, 2009

Paul Horne of the Pittsboro. NC Parks Department involved an impressive list of community members in the renovation of their Kiwanis park, and salvaged slabs of a huge felled oak to serve as imaginative lily pads in a garden 'pond'. Other wood pieces were recyled as a car and a curved seating bench that is intentionally integrated into the playspace, to pull in the grown-ups, rather than leaving them hovering 'round the edges as most playgrounds do. They've recently hosted a sculpture exhibit, featuring the works of local artists, at the playground.

"Renovations include doubling the play space, the addition of colorful shade cloths, 10 new trees plus a variety of shrubs and perennial flowers. Natural play features have been added including two sandboxes, a boulder climbing area, and a unique carved wooden car, along with benches, a hop-scotch area and an incredible “Clyde critter.”

I have been hearing passionately positive feedback from parents, and seeing enthusiastic kids every time I’m out there. My day was made Thursday when a woman confided that she “wished they had something like this in Chapel Hill.” I’ve also heard it described as a “wonderland.” Word must be getting around because I’ve seen higher attendance at the park than ever before. "

I think it's important to note that this project was the renovation of an existing site that still includes traditional, poles-and-platform equipment...it's an excellent model for the addition of natural play spaces to existing playgrounds. Well-done, Pittsboro!

More at the Pittsboro Parks blog.

Artist's Playground, Sudely Castle, 2008

The theme of last's years outdoor sculpture exhibition at Sudely Castle in the U.K. was play.

Some of the installations are of no relevance (Dripping plastic skeleton figure in a tree? Not. Playful.) but others have some new ideas...

Several of the pieces focused on reflectance, a material attribute I wish I saw more in playspaces. Jeppe Hein's 'Mirror Labyrinth' would definitely be fun on a playground, as would Arik Levy's 'Moon Tables', though finger smudges would have to be tolerated.






Henry Krokatsis reproduced the pulpit from the chapel on the Castle's grounds as a treehouse. Since pulpits are a place for 'vocalizing' it made me think of the delight of having a shouting spot (preferably elevated, like this one) on the playground.



James Hopkins made a bottle containing lenses and mirrors to give a kaleidoscopic view of the surroundings (how much do I want to see lenses used on the playground? Alot.)




and Carston Holler (he of the gigantic slides at the Tate Modern) contributed a flying machine.

Oh, and Zaha Hadid made a slide, but it looked just like her shoes/sofas/faucets/buildings and wasn't very interesting.

[Thanks, Fawn!]

"My swings have no chains because chains get stolen in Belarus."

In discussions about the niceties of playground design, I sometimes forget about the places where there isn't any playscape at all. But I've been reminded by Tom McEnaney of International Orphanage Development Programme, who has installed 60 playgrounds for orphanages in Belarus. His playground components are manufactured by a company that used to make tanks for the Russian military (how's that for swords into plowshares...tanks into swings!) so they're virtually indestructible, and use struts instead of chains on the swings. Fortunately, they seem to still allow teeter-totters and merry-go-rounds in Belarus!

See more of his images here: http://www.ammado.com/nonprofit/orphan/photoalbums/2409

The Learning Community Playground, Rhode Island, Laurencia Strauss, 2008

I'm back...thanks for your patience. I'll ease into things by posting some of the playgrounds sent in by my readers...I'm always glad for recommendations!

At The Learning Community, a charter school in Central Falls, R.I., students spent recess on an old parking lot until a fourth grader wrote to Lowe's asking for help. They sent $110,000.

The new playground was designed by Laurencia Strauss, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate, as "part playground, part park, part sculpture" to provide space for both active play and quiet reflection. Creative use of inexpensive elements like round pre-cast stepping stones and galvanized water troughs, good use of plants...and the sandpit is a pool!

Lots more photos, including of construction (I love construction photos!) at the school's Flickr stream.

(Thanks Maggie L.!)

Apologies for being away...desperately trying to finish a manuscript on Raman spectroscopy of nanostructures at the moment. Back soon!

arcady

Coney Island Playground Slide 1905

The 'Helter Skelter'. From my files, original source unknown, enlighten me if you know it!

Luckey Climbers

Tom Luckey and his son Spencer design biomorphic climbing systems that feature in many large-scale museum installations. Surrounded by nets, they allow for a much greater height than in most playground experiences. I have personally climbed one, and it was great! Luckey considers himself a sculptor..his climbers, he says, are like fountains, and the kids are the water.

Photos from the Luckey website and a Boston Globe slideshow about their work.

Riverside Park playground, Independence Kansas

One of those places is Riverside Park in Independence Kansas. They must take good care of things in Independence, because the Riverside park includes a range of playground equipment that appears to date from the 1920s through the 1950s, as well as modern additions.

Plus it has a corythosaurus statue from the 1964 New York World's Fair and the birthplace of Miss Able, the First Space Monkey.

What a place!

See more photos at Michael Bates via flickr

FUN-FUL playground equipment, 1920

On-line at the Smithsonian is the 1920 equipment catalog from the Fun-ful company, especially noted for their slides, some of which are still being used around the US today.

Cowley Teenage Space, Brixton London, Snug and Outdoor, 2004

All the ideas for the Cowley Teenage space emerged during a consultation project conducted with the young people who lived on the Cowley housing estate, in which objects such as large ramps, platforms, steps, wooden crates, and a temporary shelter were used by the teens to create their own spaces.

What developed was a five-a-side football and basketball pitch, a ramped mound for bicyclies, and "a covered inactivity zone for spectators and a loose arrangement of large concrete blocks with both 'inside' and 'outside' spaces for occupying, playing on and flirting around. " New entrance ways and signage denote it as a special place, and automatic lighting enhances safety at night.

According to Snug and Outdoor, the new space has improved relationships within the community and complaints against local teens have been reduced.

Bodyspace-motionthings by Robert Morris, 1971 and 2009, Tate Modern, London

American minimalist Robert Morris's Bodyspacemotionthings originally appeared at the Tate Modern in the 1970s, but was closed after only four days due to irrational exuberance by museum goers.

'Some of the 1,500 visitors became so intoxicated by [the] opportunities that they went around "jumping and screaming" to quote the exhibitions keeper, Mr Michael Compton. They went berserk on the giant see-saws, and they loosened the boards on other exhibits by trampling on them ... "It was just a case of exceptionally exuberant or energetic participation," Mr Compton said tolerantly'

Rebuilt to modern safety standards, it reappeared again in the Turbine Hall this past spring.

Robert Morris, now 78, said: 'It's an opportunity for people to involve themselves with the work, become aware of their own bodies, gravity, effort, fatigue, their bodies under different conditions'

Quote and photos, both modern and vintage, from the guardian.

Taka-Taku Land Preschool, Susan Hoffman Architects, Berlin, 2007

Inspired by one of my favorite childhood stories, Pippi Longstocking, this Berlin indoor-outdoor playspace is an interpretation of the hollow oak tree at Pippi's house, which produces lemonade.

"The lemonade breaches the rough “bark” of the walls to flow outside. In the bark of the oak tree the children can climb, hide and nap. The playable space within the facade is well-cushioned and offers protection from all weather conditions. The luminous textile shines colourfully both on the outside and the inside. Within this space the children can lose themselves in play and fun within the lemonade world."

I like the way the structure is climbing frame/ladder/slide/pillow all at once, and the feel of climbing out of a window (usually a forbidden experience for a child) and into the playspace must be irresistible.

There are seven stages to the lemonade tree:
"1 Glittering Lemonade in the Sun Light: to catch the sunlight and welcome friends. 2 Waiting for the Parents: to watch for the arrival of the parents, while interacting with the children inside in a lemonade glow. 3 Lemonade Gallery: to discover yourself and to show Mum and Dad your pictures in a lemonade illumination. 4 Lemonade Island: to have fun and delve and hide yourself in the lemonade. 5 The Bark Breaks Open: to play and have fun outside on rainy days 6 Delving into the Lemonade: to feel the world turn into lemonade while gliding around or relaxing. 7 Dreaming under the Apple Tree: to dream and share secrets."

found via urbanpreschool; more photos (and other interesting work) at the Susan Hoffman Architects website.

The Bug Hotel, Costessey School, Norwich

Costessy School's Bug Hotel uses "silver birch logs, a bark-covered flower pot to act as a small mammal home, sections of plastic down-pipe filled with cut canes as bee homes, and a number of various-sized logs and flints all built on a base-board with willow framework, up which ivies could be grown to back the structure."

Whether or not you go so far as to install a bug hotel, if natural elements like stumps, rocks, and plantings are used on the playground, you'll have insects aplenty for projects and study.

And if you have a sea of artificial surfacing planted with metal poles and plastic platforms, well, you won't.

Along those lines, an excellent item to add to 'loose' playground equipment is some large plastic magnifying glasses, great for examining bugs as well as dropped bird feathers, rocks, and dirty fingers. Just don't show them how to start a fire!

But I'd also like to see some fixed magnifying lenses installed on playgrounds...they could be installed away from direct sunlight to avoid a fire hazard and kids could take their finds over to the lens to magnify them. It could be as simple as simple as embedding the lenses into holes drillled in a fence rail.

The pleasure of looking at things through microscopes and magnifying glasses played a large role in my decision to be a scientist when I 'grew up'; I'd like to see more children use them to engage with the wonders of the world around them.

Roliqueries for the Playground

After I saw these I remembered watching children amuse themselves in a large sand area with the smooth track created by rolling a ball. How much more interesting if the ball made a pattern, like those left behind these 'roliqueries' by Amy Brier. Her creations are hand carved, with a price to match, but high-relief resin balls are available in the garden section of the hobby stores in my area.

(roliqueries originally found at thehomeoutside)

Playground Ornithopter, Richter Spielgerate, 2007

Ornithopters have fascinated designers since Icarus flew too close to the sun. The wings of this playground ornithopter actually flap, though I couldn't ascertain the mechanism...by Richter Spielgerate. Photo by gynti 46 via flickr.

Grounds for Play, Glasgow, 2004 and continuing

‘Grounds for Play’ was designed to exploration the interrelationship between art and play in a public setting; in this case Bellahouston Park outside the modern completion of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's celebrated 'House for an Art Lover' design in Glasgow, Scotland. The winner of a 2001 design competition for the overall scheme of the grounds was Gareth Hoskins Architects, who designed a carpet of leaf-like mounds to frame custom designed play and art objects. 26 giant leaves or grassy mounds currently house 15 specially commissioned play pieces for children. House for an Art Lover hopes to continue adding pieces to the park.

Graeme Andrew - Clouds

Katy Barac - Jelly Babies

[image by Guin's view via flickr]

Tassy Thompson - the mini forest and skara brae

Elspeth Bennie - peace cairn sculpture and bug swings

Alex Rigg & Trevor Leat - Bellahouston ship

Lorraine Aaron - rainbow bridge

[image by poodiecat via flickr]

Unless noted otherwise, all images courtesy of House for an Art Lover and Gareth Hoskins Architects. Additional information on the pieces in this City of Glasgow guide.

I've been to Scotland several times but never Glasgow...must put it on the list for the next visit.

That Seventies Playground, McDonalds, c. 1972

Vintage McDonalds playground materials, including original prices, posted online at flickr by jasonliebig. I favored the Big Mac climber, myself.

Vintage NYC playground c. 1970

Also from Life magazine, undated photos (1970s, perhaps?) by John Zimmerman of playgrounds in NYC, including what looks to be an industrial drum converted into a playspace with perspex 'eyes'.

Trekroner School playground, Stig L. Andersson, Roskilde, Denmark, 2002

Also found at vulgare is the Trekroner School Playground by Stig L. Andersson architects, with a wading pool that looks like a giant mud puddle. I'm particularly intrigued by the way its shallow sides allow for running and unstructured play, as pictured. Do any of you landscape architect types know what this is made of? I assume a drain is provided for cleaning...

"The school playground is conceived as a ‘garden of knowledge’ framed by the school buildings which have no corridors, so to get from one block to another everyone has to go outside and feel the weather and the changes of nature."

Jester Park Natural Playscape, Granger, Iowa, RDG Planning and Design, 2008

Located in an under-visited area of a large existing park, the Jester Park natural playscape is not only used 58 percent more than the traditional playground in the park, but 94 percent of the playscape's users were in the park solely for the purpose of visiting it.

How's that for the appeal of a new kind of playground?

And the cost was $204, 343 for 40,000 square feet; just over $5 per square foot.

According to Lewis Major, a naturalist with Polk County Conservation,“…the Playscape is not teaching children to play naturally, but is teaching parents to let their children play naturally. The kids know how to do it.”

Features:

Tall Grass Tangle: like a hedge maze but with grasses

Forest of the Dead: salvaged timber logs set into earth berms for climbing

Stone Henge: a circular monolith with viewfinders into the wider park

Wetland: wading pool, waterfall and bubbling stone

Grass Slide, Log Stairs and Boulder Scramble for climbing up and sliding/rolling back down

"Pathways constructed using limestone edging and red decomposed granite allow stormwater to sink into the ground while maintaining an accessible and visually contrasting path for those with mobility issues or visual impairments.... art elements visually engage visitors and invite them to explore the playscape further. The first component visitors encounter is a rustic 18-foot-tall entrance feature adorned with intricate carvings and a giant spider web. Three light bollards near the entrance look like old tree stumps, and mysterious petroglyph carvings are strategically hidden on rocks throughout the area. Originally designed art tiles and carvings can be found throughout Stone Henge, while the fossil plates buried in the Archeological Dig are handcrafted and painted to look like the real thing. "

Photos from the website of the Polk county conservation board, and recreationmanagement (from whom the playscape won a design award); review by a parent/visitor to the playscape is here

Playground Sculpture, 1955, Herb Goldman, Los Lunas, NM

From the same era is the sculpted form originally designed for the Los Lunas Hospital and Training School, Los Lunas, NM. From the website of sculptor Herb Goldman.

Concrete Playforms, Philadelphia, 1954

from the Life magazine archives.

SPARK Parks, Houston, Texas

I've posted before about the San Francisco's Open Playgrounds project, in which they leave school playgrounds unlocked on weekends.

The city of Houston's SPARK program is even better:

"The SPARK School Park Program was developed in 1983 as a way to increase park space in Houston, Texas. Former Houston School Board member and former City Council Member, Eleanor Tinsley, created SPARK to develop public school grounds into neighborhood parks. "

Schools apply to the city to become a SPARK site; the surrounding neighborhood must demonstrate a willingness to help plan and fund the SPARK Park with partnerships between the school and community groups such as churches, businesses and civic clubs.

The school itself raises $5000, and the school district provides $5000 as well as overseeing bidding & overseeing construction of the SPARK Park, as well as maintenance of the park after completion.

"Each school selected is given a goal of raising $5,000 for their park. Penny drives, bake sales, school carnivals, candy sales, spaghetti dinners, "buy a brick" drives, rummage sales and innumerable other events are staged to generate the funds. Classes volunteer to care for trees planted in the parks. Local businesses often help with in-kind contributions. Architects, landscape architects, artists and businesses are solicited for their professional contributions through the parents, spouses and teachers at the school. "

More than 85 of the 180 SPARK Parks have public art components. About half of the projects are proposed and completed by art teachers at the schools. When there is no art teacher, a local artists is recruited to work with the students and architect on a project. The artwork often reflects the heritage of the neighborhood, a specific theme, the school mascot, and/or the school motto.

An astonishing 180 schools in Houston have turned their grounds into public parks over the 25 years of the Spark program! Try getting your city council to adopt a resolution to build 180 parks. Great concept, effective use of taxpayer resources, and one that more communities should adopt.

New York has recently begun a similar program, called Schoolyards to Playgrounds, investing 95 million in funding for playground improvements to open 266 schoolyards as playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods.

Grosse Tete, Francois Lalanne, La Grande Borne, Grigny France, 1967

Found at the enjoyable blog vulgare was this vintage playground I'd never heard of, located at La Grande Borne, a housing estate designed in 1965 by Emile Aillaud to include large-scale works of art.

I had difficulty finding complete information on this, but apparently the playground structures are by Francois Lalanne, known for his surrealistic animal sculptures like the "Rhinocrétaire", a life-size rhinocerous that folds out a writing desk. Which would also be fun on a playground.

Aillaud's 'Instead of Balance', a construction of swelling cobblestones that was apparently not originally intended as a playground, is nonetheless used as one as well.

photos via vulgare and Jean François Noël

"Flooded Chambers Maid", an accidental playground in Madison Square Park, NYC, Jessica Stockholder, 2009

"...the uptown end of the central lawn was already crowded with children playing on a multicolored triangular platform that looked as though it had been made from giant Lego blocks. The children clambered up and down, tossing balls, yelling gleefully and digging in a square of blue rubber mulch that lay on the ground beneath this structure. Their mothers and baby sitters lounged alongside them, sitting on the platform or watching from a set of adjoining turquoise bleachers."

Jessica Stockholder's installation was intended to be a "play on the concept of women’s work and service work, as well as art making...which incorporates industrial materials and ready-made manufactured objects, and its brightly colored parts combine to create something of a three-dimensional abstract painting in space."

But it has been quickly adopted as a playground.

“The minute the blue mulch went down...we e-mailed Jessica and said: ‘This is a sandbox. What kid wouldn’t want to play?’ And in fact by the next day a kid had made mounds and had a truck in there.” (The solution: Park employees rake and reshape the mulch twice a day.)"

Top two photos from anaba; remaining images and quotes from an article at the New York Times with photos by Tony Conicola.

Laughing Swing, Rinott, Rothschild and Weinstein, 2006

Another digital playground intervention is the laughing swing, by Michal Rinott & Michal Rothschild with Leor Weinstein.

"Laughing swing is an interaction between a person and a swing. It looks like a simple, regular swing. When you sit on it, it chuckles. As you swing, it laughs, and the higher you go, the harder it laughs. At the peak swinging it is laughing wildly.

The swing connects the experience of movement with the experience of laughter. It is a cycle: the person, by swinging, makes the swing laugh, and this laughter causes the person to laugh back.

Laughing Swing contains technological components, but it is not a technological object. It is used exactly as a regular swing, with technology adding a new aspect. The result is a fantastic experience that can reduce stress and anxiety. The swing’s laugh was chosen after auditioning a variety of different “laughers”.

More information on the concept of playful interactivity in public spaces, including 'the sonic waterfall' and 'the intimate bench' at an intriguing paper here.

Richard The's Playground Parasites, 2007

Designer Richard The's 'playful parasites' are digital extensions to existing playgrounds, targeted to tech-savvy 'tweens. Here's what he says:

"Everybody knows how to use the “interfaces” for example a swing, a seasaw or a slide. On the other hand the actual time spent with these playground props, even by kids, usually does not last very long, their functionality does not bear a lot to discover, once the sensomotoric sensation has been experienced. Also a playground in urban space is not used by night time, and usually they are not even illuminated. The only audience which might attend a playground at night are so called gap-kids (age 10-17, too old for playgrounds but too young for anything else.).The system is designed to occupy an existing playground and its props, and to create a new, temporary identity for this heterotopical space in the city [with]...the possibility of a multi-user interaction with different input devices."

Basically, bluetooth equipped devices clip onto a swing, slide, or spring playground element, and recognize the presence and position of the user.

They would allow, for example, the creation of a musical playground in which "Each augmented playground device is connected to a specific track of a song. Each device can be played like a musical instrument, and each interaction would be different. Whenever there are more than two persons playing, the sound itself develops. New sounds appear, which are not controlled by the persons, or the sounds change during the time of playing together."

Or by using a DMX light source, the movement of swings and rockers can be translated into roving spots of light: "Once a person swings higher the light still moves according to the swing but swings much further, and eventually even crosses the borders of the playground space and moves around on the street. Additional interactions with the other equipped devices could be possible, for example a rocking device could control the second axis of the light spot’s movement. So together one would would control a light spot moving around on the playground and its surrounding environment."

In urban areas, with surrounding blank walls, this could lead to the projection of windows for shadow play: "Each playground device controls one window, and triggers other actions in the windows next to it, which cannot be controlled by the players.The different players on the playground can create micro-narratives happening in this Trompe-l’œil facade."

Fascinating concepts that currently exist only in prototype form.

Berlin playground elements

Public art as playground at Postdamer Platz in Berlin. Photos by brytness4 at webshots and indi ffo at flickr.

As always, if you have further information on designers or dates, please share!

Playscapes blog in Landscape Architecture magazine

So, playscapes blog was pleased to be featured in the June issue of Landscape Architecture magazine, the publication of the American Society of Landscape Architects, as part of an article about landscape architects who blog. I'm not a landscape architect, but they let me play along anyway. If you'd like to take a look, the entire issue is available for download at zinio (for $5.25), but you can browse up to four pages for free. I'm smiling at you from page 49.

King of the Jungle playground, Toronto, Ontario

Little Norway Park, also in Toronto. Love those silvery claws. No info on designer or date...

[photos by bennylin0724 and greying_geezer via flickr]

Jamie Bell Playground, Toronto Ontario, Leathers and Associates, 1998

As anticipated from the previous post, there wasn't much going on in Toronto playground-wise. Reader Jenny did send me a recommendation for the Jamie Bell playground in High Park, however, which is the work of Leathers and Associates out of New York, and about whom I've been meaning to post about for some time.

They were an early adopter of the community-build concept (as early as 1971), and have constructed nearly 2000 custom playgrounds, mostly of wood. Their extensive use of pyramidal spires makes their work very recognizable. At Jamie Bell the artwork was carried out by children and grown-up volunteers to celebrate area history and culture.

The conference I was attending regrettably didn't have time slots for playground visits, so photos are via flickr, by grant macdonald and tomtec.

Register at Your Playground Now, 1936

WPA poster, 1936, from the American Memory project at the Library of Congress.

The Playground War

I'm headed soon to Toronto for a scientific conference, and doing some googling to find any playgrounds I'd like to visit, but apparently not...in June of 2000 one hundred and seventy two school playgrounds in Toronto were razed. It cost the city seven hundred thousand dollars for demolition, with replacement costs estimated at a staggering $27.5 million. But the playgrounds had been deemed 'unsafe', no matter that no money had been allocated, or funds raised for replacements. The kids were sad, and the parents were mad.

Liability concerns run amuk...read the story of the war at taddlecreekmag.

An excerpt from the media response to the tear-downs:

“The only logical thing to do is have lawyers to design the playgrounds,” wrote...parent, Linwood Barclay, the Star’s humour columnist. “Here are some pieces of equipment our kids will soon be playing on,” he continued. “The Litigator Teeter-Totter: As soon as children get on the equipment, they are tied up in red tape so they won’t be thrown off… . The Paralegal Bars: Similar to parallel bars from which kids can hang, but with much lower standing. Children will have to scrunch down to get under them… . Contract Bridge: Before children can run across the hanging bridge that links one side of the climber to the other, they must sign a waiver… . The Remand Rink: Kids won’t fall and hit their heads on the ice here. At this rink, there’s always a sign that says it’s closed …”

Kate Greenaway School Playscape, Islington London, Wendi Titman, 2007

[Apologies for the lack of posting lately...work in the lab is very intense at present!]

The last of the playgrounds from my London trip is the yard of the Kate Greenaway Nursery School and Children's Centre in Islington.

I absolutely loved this playscape; even now in remembering it what comes to me is the feeling of the place--gentle, affectionate, welcoming. Its very nature seems to make a playground fight unthinkable and Headmaster Julian Grenier spoke of the marked improvement in outdoor behavior since the playground was renovated with the assistance of playground designer Wendi Titman (much more about Wendi's work later).

I don't think I've ever seen a playground that was so much for the children. It seems a given, but in reality playspaces often have too much of what grown-ups would like to do and see. Even the viewpoint at a playground can be too high, with design elements placed well above a child's eye level.




At Kate Greenaway virtually all the detailing is low to the ground. Borders, edging, and surfacing on the ground plane change frequently, so there is alot to look at from three-feet and under. Intriguing found objects are set into the bike path that weaves through the entire space. Kate Greenaway promotes the use of small two-wheeled bikes without stabilisers (known here in the US as training wheels); more information in a column at the Guardian.



Changes in height were also subtle and scaled for a small child. There were several lawn areas a foot or less above grade, long low steps led to the veggie beds, and the used brick section of the bike pathway above went up and then down in a slight swell that clearly delighted the children.


A gate to no particular place is included, because children just like to open and shut gates.



The narrow vegetable planting boxes were specified so that even small children could reach into their center. Measurements were taken of the arm lengths of the children at the school to determine the dimensions. There is also a small green house; the gazebo-like structure visible in the topmost photo.

There are numerous 'quiet' places tucked away for solitary imaginings. Bamboo is used effectively as a durable screen, but one not so dense that it can't be wiggled through or crawled under.

Titman's solution to the complaint that 'the sand always gets tracked out of the sandbox' was simply to surround the sandbox with sand. The bike pathway edges the entire area.

A new addition to the playground, just started before our visit, will be a chestnut and larch climbing frame by Touch Wood Enterprises. I was most impressed by the fact that the children participated in preparing the wood for construction. According to the Kate Greenaway newsletter:

" Children, parents and staff all worked together to make the monkey bars in an amazing workshop day...the children were incredibly impressive, using real woodworking tools and concentrating for long periods of time to strip bark, split wood and shape the bars."

Few children get to experience such a close connection with hand tools in our high-tech life; what a memorable addition to the construction of a playground!

Kate Greenaway is a case study for natural play at PlayEngland, and Tim Gill has written about the school in his column at the Guardian.

Elephant and Castle Playground, London, Martha Schwartz Partnership, 2008

Still traveling through London by playground (can you believe I saw all this in one day?)

Given Martha Schwartz' reputation for the avant-garde, I was disappointed that her firm's playground for the redevelopment of St. Mary's Churchyard at Elephant and Castle consisted mostly of off-the-shelf components from a manufacturer, with the addition of some orange climbing blobs.

Very artificial, of course, but that is her style.

The flat 'discs' in the second photo are little marble sculptures, polished cool and smooth for tiny hands, with a recess in the top that would catch just enough water for a little splashing after a rain, but not enough to stay around and become stagnant. They were my favorite feature.

In the wider parkspace, black and white spheres sprouting up like so many mushrooms underneath a grouping of trees were surprisingly comfortable to sit on, and more playful than your average park seating.

More exciting, I think, are some other plans for the area...there is to be an 'urban forest' that will run from Elephant and Castle to the Tate Modern, and include a playground (drawing below from architects-in-charge Witherford Watson Mann). Can't wait!

Cantelowe's skate park, Camden, London, Wheelscape and the Cantelocals, 2007

There was also a nice skate park at Cantelowe's...I can't claim to know much about skate parks (having been on a skateboard no more than a couple of times in my life...no balance, really) but the judgment of the masses is positive...according to a press release by Sport England, who helped fund the project, it has been dubbed the best in the UK, in large part due to the involvement of the Cantelocals, the local BMX and skateboarders' group that helped Camden Council design it. I liked the fact that the funding included £10k towards a Park Officer to provide coaching.

The park includes areas for beginner and advanced skateboarders and spectators as well as a massive concrete bowl, ramps, skid rails, practice pavements and a performance platform.

It has its own website: http://cantelowesskatepark.co.uk/

The effort was led by Wheelscape, whose take on the design process of the park is enlightening.

I think there should be a rock band called Wheelscape and the Cantelocals.

Cantelowe's Park Playground, Camden, Farrer Huxley, 2009

The Cantalowe's park playscape was my favorite of all those we visited...it took the familiar elements of the natural playground--stumps, rocks, sand, earth forms--and integrated them into a story: a meteorite had crashed to earth, crumpling the ground around it as it skidded to a stop, leaving a bare (sand) skid mark, upturned boulders, and fallen trees in its wake. We visited just prior to its grand opening; I'm anxious to see how the children respond to it. By London firm Farrer Huxley Associates, it is something of a departure in style from the other playgrounds they've completed. It can only be hoped that they'll continue in this creative vein!

Bingfield Park Football Pitch, Islington, architectsnetwork

Also in Bingfield Park, behind Crumbles, was an well-designed football pitch: sunken, defined by gabion walls with strong design appeal, and boxy modern seating elements on one side with a curved seating wall on the other.

Designed by architectsnetwork; more photos at their site.

Crumbles Castle Adventure Playground, Islington, 1974

From a 1974 article in "Design" covering the installation of this adventure playground:

"Telegraph poles, concrete and granite sets from dismantled Kings Cross roadways were the chief raw materials for this toughest of all adventure playgrounds. Physically it is well suited to the robust natures of the kids in the Bingfield St neighbourhood. As an idea, it is blessedly non-abstract, a solidly fantastic landmark in an area which is visually no fun whatsoever.The Crumbles Play Castle was organised and designed by architecture students Catherine Davis, Robert Hamment, Robert Parker and Jill Seyler, at the invitation of local residents. Some nine months in the making, it is due for completion by Christmas. The 150m2 interior, designed as a quarter-amphitheatre, has now been roofed over and grassing of roof and surrounding mound should begin this month. The telegraph poles will be slung with climbing ropes.The project has depended on a lot of scattered generosity: an eventual £15,000 from the Islington authority and about the same sum in private donations of capital gifts, cheap materials, money and labour. Lang, for instance, donated some £600-worth of labour."

Crumbles continues to employ full-time playworkers to facilitate free and adventurous play that includes construction projects and cooking over a fire.

Through London by Playground - Elm Village, Theories Landscapes, 2009

When lately in London, I had the pleasure of being taken round some of its playscapes by playground advocate Tim Gill, and will be blogging about them over the next few weeks. Thanks to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the entire text of Tim's book "No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk Averse Society" is available for download at their website.

It gives specific attention to children's play and spaces designed for play, and Tim has been instrumental in moving the conversation for new playgrounds in London from a discussion of risk alone to a proper consideration of risk AND benefits as applied to playgrounds.

The issue of fear and risk couldn't have been more evident than at our visit to Elm Village, a pocket park on a housing estate in Camden, to see an installation then but a few weeks old by London-based Theories Landscapes. Just as we were admiring the playscape, we were approached by a woman from the estate who was not only displeased with it, but actively upset about her perception of its 'dangers'.

Soon, we were at the center of a small group with aggressive complaints:

The climbing structure is dangerous. It's too high. You can fall off of it. You can bump your head from underneath. You can fall down on the hill. Kids on top can see into the ground-floor apartment windows. Maybe its ok for older kids but not for younger kids and the big kids will take over the space and be bullies. The sticks on the bushes are sharp and might poke a child in the eye. The kids might enjoy it for a while but they will soon get bored. One of the entrances to the playspace is through the parking lot and someone might get run over. It's ugly.

As we talked however, the attitude of the women softened considerably. They began to acknowledge that the playground was innovative and even attractive, though they still felt that it was somehow unsafe.

It became clear that the problem was largely one of expectations: the installation differed so dramatically from what they had expected; from what they thought a playground, and in particular a 'safe' playground, should look like. Having only experienced conventional commercial equipment installed on pancake flat ground, it had become their standard.

It reminded me that communication becomes extra important when trying to do something new or innovative. The residents acknowledged that they hadn't gone to the planning meetings held at the estate, but still insisted that the playscape wasn't what they 'thought' they were getting.

While it might not have allayed all of their concerns, some simple signage explaining the playground and its goals would have helped. Just a little information about how the bushes and the timbers were important natural elements, that the apple trees on the trellis (along the yellow arches in the pictures) would shield the windows of the ground floor apartments as they grew, and that the incorporation of the hills and the height of the climbers was in line with research about how children needed to be challenged as they played, could have at least helped the moms understand. And if they understood, perhaps they might have felt proud of their unique playspace instead of believing they were simply being experimented on by the council. Perhaps they still can. I wonder what they'll think at this time next year?

While we were talking, a group of children, ranging in age from 5 to 15, came to the playground and began to play together behind us. Quite happily.

Make Playgrounds Better at the Better Project

I've been thinking for some time that it would be nice to have a place where my readers could talk about playspaces; whose format was more oriented to discussion than this blog--being more or less devoted to visual examples-- accomodates easily.

Off-blog, I get email with questions that I think would benefit from a wider group of respondents, and increasingly am contacted by students working on playground projects who would benefit from a place they could discuss their ideas.

So when I heard about the Better Project, it seemed to be a good solution.

I've started a 'make playgrounds better' project, and some topics to start us off. Since the premise of the site is improvement, they're worded as 'suggestions':

• Provide installation and maintenance instructions for natural playground elements
• Provide a place where anyone working on a playground project can collaborate
• Move from 'risk assessment' of playgrounds to 'risk-benefit analysis'
• Build a list of good plants for use on playgrounds
• Discuss the pros and cons of playground materials

After registering anyone can respond or start their own discussion within the 'make playgrounds better' project. So you can bring up any topic at any time, rather than just responding to my posts (though I hope you'll continue to do that as well!), and you can subscribe to the project's RSS feed to keep up. Feel free to continue to email me personally, but I hope the 'Make Playgrounds Better" project will accomodate more free-wheeling discussions and hopefully some group problem solving.

Best wishes and happy thoughts for long summer days on the playground,
arcady

Wishbone House, Colin Greenly, 1967

Precast concrete, six feet high and eight foot long, six thousand pounds, "Wishbone House" was the winner of The Corcoran Gallery's School of Art's National Playground Sculpture Competition, partially funded by The National Endowment for the Arts in 1967.

"the piece was executed specially for the competition insasmuch as the work i have shown previously would in no way be appropriate for the location contemplated. i considered the problem in this order: playground, sculpture, climb on, climb in, sit on, shade essential, minimum upkeep, maximum shape, minimum cost, reproducibility." colin greenly, 1967

"As noted in the "Art In America" November-December 1967 issue the visual and philosophic concerns of the glass sculpture were replaced with other considerations: site - playground, sculptural integrity, appropriate scale, tactile response, climb on, climb in, sit on, shade incorporation, and creating a non-limiting "platform" for childrens' imagination. The essential ingredient with which I started was an intuitive, varied, playful "S" curve which was repeated with spacing related to the likely movements of children. I was most pleased when my artist friend Jose Bermudez and his son Alexander visited the studio just when an initial full scale section was completed. Alex and the sculpture seemed to fit each other exactly.

Footnote: The prize included installation of one cast in Washington, D.C. When I learned that the cast was to be installed in a wealthy section of Washington, I called the White House to note my degree of unhappiness with that choice. First lady, Mrs. Johnson, who did much to enliven the District's environment, kindly arranged for a second cast to be placed in a less fortunate part of the city. I'll always be greatful for her sensitivity."

First photo and quote found at the blog airformarchives, second photo and additional information from Colin Greenly's website, leaningpostproductions.

More on Egon Moeller-Nielsen, 1953

Found via a post at Daddytypes referencing this blog referencing Egon Moeller-Nielsen (something nicely circular there); more info about the creation of his fantastic play sculptures as reported on a June 1953 page from Modern Mechanix.

Intriguing reference to the 'artistic-looking sliding pond'...if you know anything about it, get in touch.

Quote from Rainer Schmidt

In perusing the website of the BUGA playground designer (see below), I found this lovely quote:

"It is necessary to call something your own territory, to recognize the usefulness of the area and to fill it accordingly. When children call the straggly trees next to the fenced-in playground their secret hideaway and love to play there, their order-loving parents and zealous planners should think about it."

Words to live by.

BUGA playground, Munich, 2005

Playscape installation from the 2005 BUGA national garden festival in Munich, with high-contrast paths like ant trails.

I couldn't find any information on the designer. Any help?

UPDATE: Many thanks to reader Anna for providing the name of the designer: Prof. Rainer Schmidt .

photos from hn. via flickr, and ratsateit via flickr