But this past summer I was showing my electron microscope (the old one, not the new million-dollar one) to a group of five year-olds and explaining to them how the bug we had just put into the chamber was now visible on the screen, only bigger, and comparing it to a television and saying "you know how you can see the people on your TV but they're not inside the TV, are they, they're somewhere else" when it became quite clear that they had, in fact, thought that those people were indeed inside their televisions, not somewhere else, and I had blown their little minds.
All that to say, that children need to know how the world works, and knowing is often a relief to them, and so I like having real things on the playground for them to examine.
"Real stuff" on the playground seems to have been common in the past but almost completely absent in current designs (the City Museum of St. Louis being a notable exception). Which is surprising since it could represent a unique and low-cost option, and it's recycling! Here are some inspiration shots from my files; some sources unknown. Enlighten me if you have them!
The British Admiralty donated this 22-foot sailboat to the Kennington adventure playground in the 1950s.
An engine at the Dansom Land Playground, 1967.
Antique fire engine at the previously-blogged Riverside Park Playground in Independence, Kansas. [source is Michael Bates' flickr]
Decommissioned navy plane placed on a New Jersey playground in 1956 [Getty Images]
P.S. If you know of other playgrounds with 'real stuff' I'd love to hear about them.
P.S. If you know of other playgrounds with 'real stuff' I'd love to hear about them.
I love seeing these! Unfortunately I can only think of the parks where the 'real stuff' has a fence around it to keep the kids OFF . . . =[
ReplyDelete(I love your blog!!!)
Also in Kansas, Oakdale Park in Salina has a decommissioned steam engine. A couple levers are still movable but kids can climb all over it and see the firebox and tinder.
ReplyDeletehttp://travel.webshots.com/photo/1412462972074277307JMWsrT
watch out for the autoplay music in the link.
lovely stuff, I would have loved to have a real plane in my playground when i was a kid.
ReplyDeleteThere is a remarkable play space in Stavanger, Norway made from stuff from the North Sea Oil industry - huge pieces of steel, rope, pipes, buoys and so on. It was made to mark the Millenium - and Stavanger's wealth comes from the oil. The best bit - what most of the children were playing on and in - is a 'jumping landscape' of 50 or so tethered orange buoys. It's a really amazing place - I have lots of images of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that sadly, people are hypochondriacs and are also afraid of lawsuits these days. The playgrounds I remember from childhood are all but gone. Replaced by McDonald's Play Place clones. I have enjoyed reading your posts, and am glad that I've found your site as I will be building a playscape in my backyard. Your site has inspired me. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHi Arcady,
ReplyDeleteLove your blog. Have sent it around to a number of playground enthusiasts. I started a new blog recently by the name of PlayGroundology and am having fun discovering more about the world of play. If you're interested in poking in, it's at http://playgroundology.wordpress.com.
I'd like to interview you at some point and have Playscapes as a feature post.
I saw your gardening blog and wonder if in your studies you have come across Jeff Gardner. Jeff has compiled an Annotated Bibliography on Gardens and Landscape Design - http://words-and-art.com/constrnature.html. I met him online through my PlayGroundology research. His father designed the Monterey, CA Dennis the Menace Playground back in the 50s.
He'd love Playscapes. I'm going to drop him a line with your link.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Alex Smith
I do remember one real object on my school playground (which was on the American base in the Philippines in '83 or '84) was a giant metal spool. Even at that young age, I knew it was hazardous, because children could fit inside of it, but adults couldn't. That danger aside, I LOVE the idea of real objects as playground structures. I fondly recall visiting a park where a decomissioned train trolly was set up for kids to climb.
ReplyDeleteHAve you made it back home yet?? I hope your unexpectedly extended trip was more vacation than disaster.
Hey Michelle! I am safely home, and the delay was a welcome one.
ReplyDeleteXelaboy, I can't reply by email to your comment so please email me directly.
JANW, I'd love to see your photos of the Norwegian playground! Do please get in touch.
Here's a nice piece in Seattle, Washington at Bradner Gardens... a tractor, using the real chassis and some parts, but other parts (e.g. engine) have been replaced with wood sculptural bits.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/justsmartdesign/3458060558/
There are also some cool elements at Gasworks Park in Seattle, using old industrial machinery that has been cleaned and painted bright colors. Some is meant for play, others say not to touch but people still do.
http://www.australianexplorer.com/photographs/victoria/28010622035726-01-06_red_cliffs_big_lizzie_3.jpg
ReplyDeleteRemember climbing on when I was a kid - an amazing piece of engineering... Don't know if you can climb now....
Also the Real Submarine at Holbrook NSW, australia... and who can not forget "Gulliver" playground in Valencia Spain......
ReplyDeleteDennis the Menace Park in California (I'm from Tulsa, so I've never actually been there, I've just read about the place's unique history) has a real train. It's now fenced off with a very small picket fence, but kids climb on it all the time anyway, and nobody stops them.
ReplyDeleteDennis the Menace Park in California (I'm from Tulsa, so I've never been there) has a real train. It's fenced off by a tiny picket fence, but kids climb on it all the time anyway.
ReplyDeleteWe have just had a men in education summit here in New Zealand, and one of the guys mentioned they got told to remove an old car and a bulldozer they had in the playground as they were "too real" and might encourage children to play in cars at home . . . sad really!
ReplyDeleteEmma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose, CA has tractors (among many other cool features, such as an animal petting area and a barn) -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/karensphotoplace/2970364188/
ReplyDeleteSomewhat after the event, but does real, but adapted count? Hoping this old boat, the Seabass will appear with the link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mohdesign.co.uk/page1/page8/page8.html
@oxworx I was at the Men's Summit too. I know of several early childhood centres that have real objects here in Christchurch New Zealand.Burnham Kindergarten even has a real tank engine. Being in the grounds of the Army base, maybe that should be a tank!
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960's and early 1970's a local shopping centre, the Floreat Forum (in Perth, Western Australia) had a an ex-army armoured car in the playground. It was all-steel and rather like a small tank and resided in a sandpit at the front of the centre.
ReplyDeleteIt was very popular - there were always children climbing in it and on it. The hatches were welded open and you could access the whole of the interior (the motor had been removed) and there were still the boxes for ammunition and so on. The barrels of the various weapons were still attached but had had all their working bits removed.
It was quite a tight fit, and although adults could get inside it I never saw one do so, possibly because of the pervasive odour of urine!
I played in it often - up until I was about 10 or 11 I still enjoyed it. It gradually got more and more dilapidated and rusty and was eventually removed some time in the mid 1970's.