playscapes

Ball and Loop system for making forts at the Chicago Chidren's Museum, DesignPlay Studio, 2009

2012-01-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

While we're on the subject of interior playscapes: Chicago-based Design Play Studio used a system of balls and loops to facilitate fort-building at an exhibit for the Chicago Children's Museum in 2009.
This is a definite upgrade from the piles of books I used to hold down the sheets I draped over the couch and table as a child.

I point this out because one of the (many) things I'd like to see change about public playgrounds is the feeling that they are static and fixed.

Adding loose parts helps, but in a way they just serve to point out the inadequacy of what is already there; as in "we-just-spent-$50,000-on-a-playground-and-now-we-need-something-else???"

Why not plan to make the playground itself more adaptable, more fluid? Why not make it easy to, say, drape the playground with fabric for forts?

Outside the Box, Tali Buchler, Zichron Yaakov, Israel, 2011

2012-01-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

Tali Buchler (with the help of family and friends) designed and constructed this amazing indoor playscape and modular furniture system for the community center in Zichron Yaakov, Israel that offers more scope for imagination than projects many times its budget and scale!

The center's limited timescale (a 3 week deadline!) and budget led her to think about simple forms and materials that would allow both children and adults to express their creativity; while waiting around for classes to start or end, they can build with the oversized blocks or draw images on the pixel cork wall.

The building blocks are made from discarded cardboard and tape, designed as a modular system of interlocking cubical shapes whose dimensions and proportions of the elements are appropriate either for play or for sitting. A stage is constructed of reused shipping wooden pallets, creating 2 elongated rectangles that can be placed side by side to create a square or a long rectangle, to change the level of the floor in a way that can be used for performance or simply to define a play area.

The cork pixel wall, which refers to the local wine industry, is a 5 meter long by 2 meter tall plywood panel, with 4000 holes that can be filled with colored wine cork caps to create a pixel image. Inserting the corks into the holes is a good simple motor skill exercise for small children.

The living room uses a series of cardboard sofas upholstered with colorful fabric to create a sitting space. Each seat is made of 2 "L" shapes nesting; one "L" creates the arm while the other forms the back. Since the sofas are lightweight, they are often used for play along with the blocks.

I'm currently thinking alot about interior spaces for children as we define the 'children's house' for my church's new building, and I find this incredibly inspirational...may need to include space for a cork wall. Beautifully done, Tali!

Untitled (but it's a playground), Stefan Wykydal, 2005

2012-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Artist STEFAN Wykydal's medium-to small-scale gouaches interpret the surroundings of his everyday life: community buildings, bus stops, schools and playgrounds.

Monster Footprints Playground, MAD Architects, Shenzhen China, 2009

2012-01-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

I get tired of the default to poured-in-place safety surfacing, but this playscape by MAD architects puts it to creative use--making two monster-sized footprints in the middle of Shenzhen’s Citizen’s Square.

Their careful topography allows for a surprising range of play within a single feature, from solitary musings at the edge of the space to raucous, unpredictable ball games on the puckelball-like 'pitch' of the monstrous prints.

This was a temporary installation for the 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism...I wish it could have stayed1

[via archdaily]

More Playground rollercoasters: Kompan's 'Miram'

2012-01-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

The Danish playground manufacturing company Kompan's 'Miram' play feature provides a coaster-like experience to a child seated on one of its two tracks; kids can also stand up for a skateboard-like ride.

One of Miram's most thoughtful features is the provision of a standing space on either end of the structure for friends or onlookers; allowing the play to include elements of community and performance.

I feature 'equipment' only rarely, but this looks like great fun.

[first image source, all others via kompan affiliates]

'Magic Mountain' Rollercoaster climber, Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth, Duisburg, Germany, 2011

2012-01-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth installed an elevated walking path, a frozen roller coaster track that loops to 147 feet above the landscape on a hill in Duisburg Germany. I love roller coasters, and often look over at the maintenance staircase next to the tracks and wonder what it would be like to climb instead of ride. Now we know, except for the loop-the-loop of course.

This is an arduous, grown-up climber. But I'm really intrigued by how this roller-coaster idea could be adapted as a form for children's playgrounds....the right sort of slopes could make for an accessible, infinite loop playtrack that is visually appealing and encourages the sort of continuous physical motion that gives kids real physical benefits.

[via dezeen]

Rethinking the History of Childhood, Jan 14, University of Greenwich (I'll be there)

2012-01-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

image from the website of Ray Wills, a veteran playworker in adventure playgrounds

The University of Greenwich Centre for the Study of Play and Recreation is hosting a conference next Saturday, January 14, on "Rethinking the History of Childhood", including a morning session entitled 'The Rise and Fall of Playgrounds'.

As I happen to be in London at the moment I'll be there; not speaking, just attending, but if you're in the area and would like to say hello and share playground thoughts, please do stop by! The conference is free, but you must register to attend, or I'll be hanging about after the morning session and stopping by the coinciding exhibition on junk play at the university's Stephen Lawrence Gallery.

"The exhibition will explore historical and contemporary representations of a movement for children’s play space. This started life in the late 1940s as Junk play and has become better known as Adventure play. The show will include videos and photos from the personal archives of playworkers and play researchers. The story told by contemporary images and constructions will capture the practical ways children use these spaces to understand and deal with the city as an 'imposed environment'."

The idea of the junk playground originated with the Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sørensen, but its greatest champion was Lady Allen Hurtwood, whose Planning for Play is of course now available in digital edition through Playscapes.

Hope to see some of you in Greenwich!

Purchase Planning for Play digital download for $6 USD via Paypal

High Line Children's Workyard Kit, Cas Holman, NYC, 2011

2012-01-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Industrial and toy designer Cas Holman made an engaging set of loose parts for New York's High Line Park this past summer. Reflecting the industrial history of the area, the collection of wooden planks wheels, pulleys, ringbolts, and rope allow for free assembly and tinkering...the components can be used to convey buckets or materials, or become a giraffe or an airplane or in Cas' words, just a "thingy". Kids like to build thingys, and who's to say what it looks like in their imagination anyway?

Great work by Cas (the kit is patent pending, so I hope it will soon be more widely available!) in conjunction with Early Learning Educators and Friends of the High Line, who are considering more ways of facilitating play withing the High Line landscape.

Country in the City at the Madison Children's Museum, Madison WI USA

2011-12-15T13:17:00.000-08:00

Talk about your green roofs...thanks to reader Carol for submitting the rooftop garden playscape of the Madison Children's Museum in Madison Wisconsin. With nary a traditional play structure in sight, Kubala Washatko Architects nonetheless created an eminently playable space with so much scope for exploration...and even chickens! This is a great example of how a space we might more traditionally consider a garden can be tweeked to become a playscape just by allowing say, the walls to be climb-able and the rocks to be step-able; the gazebo to be hide-able and the paths to be chase-able. Beautifully done.

Planning for Play by Lady Allen Hurtwood now available through Playscapes!

2011-12-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

A couple of Christmases ago, I posted a list of Vintage Playground Books as potential gifts for the playground-obsessed. Since then, some of them have become quite expensive and difficult to obtain. I like to think that's because of you, dear readers, and your hunger for the innovation shown in these mid-century titles.

So for the last year I've been working on obtaining rights to some of the best (tracking down copyright holders from the 1960s is no easy task) so that they will once again be readily available! I'm really excited to launch this holiday season with a classic among classics, the if-I-could-take-only-one-playground-book-to-a-desert-island-I'd-take-this-one Planning for Play by Lady Allen of Hurtwood, first published in 1968.

The hardcover version of Planning for Play is currently unavailable on amazon, and the cheapest price for the softcover is $60. But you can now get a digital file, pdf with double spread page views as shown above, for just $6 right here at Playscapes. It shows the entire 140 pages of the original with its 176 photographs, illustrations and plans (click on the above images to see larger versions in which the text is legible).

I haven't used any fiendish Digital Rights Management techniques; once you've downloaded the file it is yours, just like a physical book is, to print or loan if you wish but not to copy and hand out. Please remember that this book is still under copyright protection, for which I've purchased publication rights and must also pay royalties; your respect for the time and expense of the original copyright holder as well as my own is very much appreciated. (If you need to convert the pdf to other ebook formats like epub or mobi, try Calibre, which is a free download).

As always, I make this launch with trepidation due to my limited tech skills. If there are glitches please be patient, and do stay tuned for more Playscapes Press vintage playground classics available in early 2012!

Purchase Planning for Play digital download for $6 USD via Paypal

Wooden Playscapes by Atelier de Launay

2011-12-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Since 1971, Atelier de Launay have been creating extraordinary sculptural playscapes, mostly of wood, mostly in France.

"Creating a playground is not about placing prefabricated pieces.
The planning of a playground should form a link between the people and the space.
Designs come from specific histories and memories of people.
Each site is given a special answer and a new story.

To shelter, to lie down, to appear, to swing, to snuggle, to hide, to climb, to crawl, to cross a bridge, to discover, to fall, to get lost, to find, to go down, to go for a walk, to go through a tunnel, to go up, to hang from, to jump, to imagine stories, to make noise, to move, to play games, to perch, to roll, to run, to slide, to stride, to touch, to spin, to turn upside down, to watch, to step, to meet…

These playgrounds go beyond typical play functions to awaken the active imaginations of all users, from children and teenagers to adults and the elderly.."

Too often when we think of using wood on the playground, we think simply of boards; surely the least interesting expression of what used to be a tree. The other extreme is to refuse to alter the tree's 'treeness' at all, utilizing only stumps or rough trunk sections. Atelier de Launay celebrates all the possibilities of wood as a medium for playscapes, from climbing boards to realistic animals to Henry Moore-esque abstractions. And their ideas about honoring site history and memory are ambitious; referencing such things as the the library of Rousseau and four of the artistic studies of Leonardo: architecture, botany, anatomy, and drape.

Playgrounds are so strongly about the physical that intellectual pursuits don't naturally spring to mind as a design focus. But I'm fascinated by the sophistication this 'layer of the mind' adds to the playspace, and thinking about how a child might gradually come to realize that the forms on which they are clambering were studied, long ago, by Leonardo; or how grown-ups might consider the books Rousseau had in his library while their children play. How might you add an intellectual layer to your playscape?

[Many thanks to Paris-based landscape architects sensomoto for introducing me to Atelier de Launay!]

Numen Netscape, Belgium, 2011

2011-11-30T14:42:00.001-08:00

Austrian/Croatian design collective Numen, whose cocoon-like constructions of sticky tape have been featured on the blog before, expanded their exploration of flexible space into nets for a contemporary art space in Belgium earlier this year. I love the way these provide for both bouncy activity and calm contemplation.

Nets aren't new on the playground. But like Toshiko Horiuchi's creations, Numen's work creates a fully three-dimensional space to be in, not just a piece of equipment to stand or climb on. That's why they feel so special, for children and adults alike.

Add caption

[thanks to reader Mark for the tip!]

Playground Crochet by Toshiko Horiuchi

2011-11-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, who orders yarn by the ton for her creations, is the textile artist behind the oft photographed net constructions at the Hakone sculpture park in Sapporo Japan.

I love the story of how she came to be engaged with children's play: "It all happened quite by accident. Two children had entered the gallery where she was exhibiting 'Multiple Hammock No. 1' and, blissfully unaware of the usual polite protocols that govern the display of fine art, asked to use it. She watched nervously as they climbed into the structure, but then was thrilled to find that the work suddenly came alive in ways she had never really anticipated. She noticed that the fabric took on new life - swinging and stretching with the weight of the small bodies, forming pouches and other unexpected transformations, and above all there were the sounds of the undisguised delight of children exploring a new play space."

From that point, her work shifted out of the gallery and a subdued, monochromatic pallet into a riotous rainbow of colors for children's playscapes.

Rainbow Net was produced in close collaboration with structural engineers TIS & Partners and landscape architects Takano Landscape Planning and opened in July of 2000 after three years of planning, testing, and building.

Note that the project began with a brief not for a playground, but simply for 'public art'. Wouldn't it be great if when we heard 'public art' we automatically thought 'play'?

But innovative playscapes require an enormous commitment:

"...endless cycles of discussion and approval, with meticulous attention to detail...[including] an actual scale wooden replica of the space in Horiuchi's studio and accurately scaled crocheted nets using fine cotton thread. Even then, it was difficult to assess many things. What difference, for instance, would the weight of the real yarn make when everything increased in scale? All of these factors had to be calculated in order to arrive at a scientific methodology that could eradicate any risk of unacceptable danger." During final assembly, Toshiko crocheted ten hours a day, often on her knees, until the installation was complete.
With the current revival of the textile arts and yarn bombings everywhere, I'd love to see more crochet on the playground!

Playgrounds Designed with Bullies in Mind

2011-11-09T15:10:00.000-08:00

The playground bully is a classic villain in children's lives and literature alike. Playgrounds don't create bullies, of course, but could design adjustments help prevent acts of bullying?

I recently came across a great vintage document by Gary Moore, Uriel Cohen, Jeffrey Oertel, and Lani van Ryzin of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, entitled Designing Environments for Handicapped Children: a design guide and case study, published by the Educational Facilities Laboratory in 1979.

Its advice on play spaces for handicapped children is likely dated now, and in any case I am no expert in that field, though it should be noted that the work is replete with remarks on the importance of natural elements and the need for loose parts, lesson we still haven't learned.

But I was most intrigued by its discussion of "Retreats and Breakaway Points" (p. 68 of the doc, if you're following along).

'Retreats' are places that individuals or small groups can be away from other groups. As the authors note, the placement of these areas is critical; they should be located out of the flow of, but still connected to, the general space of the playground, much like a nook or window seat in an interior space. This allows a child to withdraw without having to completely cede the playground territory.

I'll add to the authors' analysis the further requirement that a retreat should be an attractive designed space in its own right. A mere bench doesn't qualify. In this way, a child who needs to utilize the retreat isn't surrendering their own enjoyment or involvement. They're just moving to another attractive, though less active, part of the playscape.

A 'Breakaway Point' provides a face-saving exit from an 'unfavorable situation'. Though the context of the authors is that of a physical challenge that a child might not be able to master, the idea is also relevant to the unfavorable presence of a bully. Providing breakaway points also promotes increased exploration of the playground space by reducing the fear of an upcoming challenge.

The inclusion of these design features has no downside; even if they didn't reduce the potential for bullying they would be sensitive and attractive additions to any playscape. As a quieter child myself, I usually hung out on the concrete steps of the school away from the vigorous play. I would have welcomed a more inviting retreat. And having once felt trapped by a big kid on the climbing equipment, I just stayed away.

The entire document is available online; it's definitely for the serious playgrounder but is full of vintage yet still relevant thoughts. Highly recommended for your further reading!

Crater Lake, 24° STUDIO, Kobe Japan, 2011

2011-10-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Like all biennale installations, Crater Lake by 24° STUDIO for the Kobe, Japan event is only temporary. And though meant mostly for grown-up art fair attendees, it incorporates space for climbing, sliding, hiding, performance, quiet play, and even flexibility (the seating stools are movable) in a compelling visual form that can be enjoyed by all ages. Very, very well done.

Quick, somebody, hire these guys to make a permanent playscape!

[via the contemporist]

Backyard 8-Track

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Typographically beautiful, endless fun.

[this one has been in my files for a long time; source unknown. If you know where it came from, please tell me!]

UPDATE: thanks to reader grégory for providing the credit for this photo; it is from

Informal Meetings

Photography and design: Radim Pesko

A collection of photographs, first volume of small image novelas, published by Bedford Press.

http://www.radimpesko.com/souvenirs

The Park for Playing and Thinking, Contrafile and Basurama, Sao Paulo Brasil

2011-10-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

The ever-playful Basurama (whose Ghost Train Park in Lima has been previously featured on the blog) collaborated with Brazilian collective Contrafilé and other partners to create a park in which to both play AND think in a Sao Paulo favela. The community, and especially its children, were deeply engaged in both planning and construction.

They used old tires to retain a refuse-ridden slope, as well as for stair-paths and climbing structures. There's a gigantic blackboard and an electricity generating bike, as well as a radio station, a sound toy, and a community stage, plus a tight rope and is that a turning bar in the community space? Aldo van Eyck would be SO proud.

I'm really glad to see that they didn't neglect the designed landscape; in addition to garden beds and composting bins there are dedicated areas reserved for plantings of trees and grass, wise choices that far more expensive (and supposedly well-designed) playgrounds consistently ignore. And a elevated community playpen for the bebes. One small participant said 'we're making a garden out of garbage!'

Check out the blog that chronicles Parque para Brincar e Pensar...the community love and labor on display there is inspiring.

Thanks to friend of Playscapes Ángela León,who participated in the project, for submitting it. I really like the idea of considering both playing and thinking...does your playground think?

The Vintage Mosaic Playgrounds of Singapore

2011-10-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

There are a series of urban playgrounds in Singapore surfaced with square mosaic tiles more reminiscent of bathtub than a playspace; a unique material I haven't seen applied anywhere else quite in this way.

This past January they were the subject of a photography exhibit called "School Of Hard Knocks" by graphic designer Stanley Tan and his wife Antoinette Wong, owners of the Little Drom Store, who started started taking pictures of the playgrounds about four years ago. They were designed by Mr. Khor Ean Ghee of the Singapore Housing and Development Board (HDB) in the 1970s. Now 76, he said in an interview that 'We wanted to create something that was distinctive. My boss said to me that all the buildings along Orchard Road were not designed locally. So at least, our playgrounds should be.'

He doesn't elaborate on why the mosaic tile technique was chosen, but I hope it won't be lost...newer playgrounds in Singapore should honor this special local tradition. Tan regrets that now "no matter where you go, it's the same old thing. We've lost a little of our identity, with the same safe playgrounds manufactured overseas, all over Singapore."

Justin Zhang of CNNGO points out the reason: "a decade of local playground design came to an abrupt end in 1993. Just months after the local papers ran an exposé about the public playgrounds' poor state and lack of safety standards, a five-year-old boy's thumb was severed while playing on a faulty slide. The boy regained the full use of this thumb, but that marked the end of the play areas. Foreign safety experts were flown in to inspect our playgrounds, which were subsequently declared unsafe. A massive upgrading exercise was carried out. Concrete structures in sandboxes were replaced with plastic modular ones sitting on rubber mats. The HDB also stopped designing playgrounds and bought them from international suppliers instead."

To celebrate these unique places, the Little Drom Store made playground pins depicting the distinctive structures (I love this idea...the world needs more playground jewelery!) There's a tiny mosaic dragon, and an elephant, a pelican and a watermelon....all available on their website.

[First two images by Justin Zhuang for CNNGO, others from the Little Drom Store.]

Interactive Public Art in Chattanooga Tennessee, Request for Qualifications

2011-10-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

Props to the city of Chattanooga for using a grant from the US National Endowment for the Arts to fund a new urban park of playful, interactive sculpture!

They are seeking qualifications from artists/artist teams for the park, to be called 'The Main Terrain', in the revitalized Southside district of downtown Chattanooga. Up to five artists/artist teams will be short-listed, with a $3,000 stipend to be used for design proposal and travel. Total project budget for public art is $210,000. The winning artists/teams will collaborate on a project team that includes the City of Chattanooga, a landscape architect and Public Art Chattanooga.

The RFQ is open to all established professional artists/artist teams, designers, landscape architects and architects over the age of 18 who currently reside in the United States. Deadline: applications must be received by mail, hand delivery or electronically by October 25, 2011, 4:00 pm EST.

I hope to seem some amazing playable sculptures out of this!

More information at public art chattanooga.

Castle at Wilson Park, Fayetteville Arkansas USA, Frank Williams, 1980

2011-09-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've just done an interview for a parks and recs magazine in which I noted the fact that standardized 'kit' playgrounds rarely worm themselves into a neighborhood's communal heart the way a playscape that is unique to its site can.

In 1970 Fayetteville held a contest to improve the area around a natural spring. Artist and sculptor Frank Williams presented a scale model for a "fantasy play castle sculpture garden" that would eventually be known simply as "The Castle". Frank called it "Seven Points" and designed seven cement castellations and a rock in the foot bridge with the number "7" in it.

Inspired by Gaudi and thinking that a structure already in 'faux decay' would little show the ravages of time and children, Frank embarked on the project with the support of the Arkansas Arts Council. Incredibly, Williams did most of the ferro-cement and natural stone construction himself, outlasting multiple assistants and extending a three month project to a full year.

Williams' website details the playground's constructions, and the trials associated with it:

"I had plans for landscaping and plantings that had to be scrapped. At least two bronze sculptures I had designed were dropped. And untold options and possibilities were ditched due to the practical concerns of time and money.

I pushed and we hurried but when the money was out helpers had practical choices to make and some had to find other paying jobs...ultimately it was me alone cleaning up and trying to plant a few purchased and donated plants and trees with the donated aide of a local landscaper.

But we did have the opening over that hot weekend."

Perseverance paid off in a place envisioned for both the 'young of age and the young of heart'; thirty years of children playing, teenagers hanging out, tired grown-ups dangling their feet in the water, and countless graduation and wedding photographs taken there by the citizens of Fayetteville. How many playgrounds are special enough that the community wants to mark its special moments there?

At the castle's 25th anniversary celebration, Williams noted that it is a place "where many children forget about television and video games.” Amidst all the hand-wringing about childhood obesity, we need to acknowledge that grown-up playground makers aren't always making spaces that are interesting enough to keep children active. Saying 'kids should play outside!' is the easy part. Making places so engaging that they forget about television and video games is more difficult, but so important.

Road-sign fencing and YouthBuild

2011-09-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

A fence made of roadsigns that I posted in 2008 is, oddly enough, one of the most visited posts on playscapes. But it was just an image...now there is a full instructable for road sign fencing courtesy of the construction manager for the Greensboro, Alabama chapter of YouthBuild, which is a national program funded by the Department of Labor that provides low-income young people a chance to study for their GED and acquire trade skills, all while earning a small stipend for their labor.

"The local county and state highway engineering offices donated old road signs, which we then cut, sanded, filed, and drilled to create pickets. Using jigs and a self-organized assembly line, the students manufactured nearly a thousand pickets for roughly 225 linear feet of fencing. By cutting and randomly re-assembling the signs, the graphics were broken and rebuilt into a new collage of abstract symbol and color."

In general playgrounds should not be fenced, and certainly not all the way around. But sometimes a site dictates a partial barrier; this is a great choice.

[via boingboing]

Inspiration for Geometry on the Playground

2011-09-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

The Geometry Playground Exhibition has a flickr group with loads of images to inspire geometric playspaces:

bladzijde 3 by ingrid siliakus

Stone IV IX MMXI by andrea russo

But the most sublime geometrizing is by Anne Tyng, an architect whose life work to 'inhabit geometry' has recently been the subject of an exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, featuring habitable platonic solids that would be AMAZING on the playground.

photo by Matthew Suib/Greenhouse Media

So look at that and then look at this:

Not good enough. Not anywhere near good enough.

Geometry on the Playground

2011-09-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

John McClellan, Playground, 1957

The Geometry Playground, a traveling play exhibition funded by the United States National Science Foundation, includes a maze-like gyroid, corkscrew tunnels, and an anamorphic hopscotch court. Visit their website for the tour schedule, or to request a visit to a museum near you.

Some time ago on the blog I lamented the loss of 'real things' on the playground--decommissioned fire trucks, factory machines, and jet planes that used to allow children to to absorb the workings of a gear assembly or the nature of a riveted skin while they played.

Mathematical functions are 'real things' too, and portraying them in solid form provides an interactive learning experience and gives artificial climbing structures a reason for being in a marketplace that is increasingly disenchanted with the same old poles and platforms. Playground manufacturers should take note.

Spotlight, Carol Mancke, London, 2006

2011-08-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Architect Carol Mancke's installation Spotlight was a part of 'Cats Allowed', a one-day event in in a housing estate in east London made by a group of artists, architects and students. The estate is peppered with signs forbidding dogs, ball games, skating, music, etc, and the public realm is essentially unused. The event involved various games that were not explicitly forbidden.

Who would think to explicitly forbid charades (!) so Carol drew a spotlight using yellow tape on an old brick wall, and left a bucket with poetry snippets in it. The neighborhood children immediately knew what to do.

photo by Layla Testa; see also Carol's interesting e xploration of how art interacts with health and safety regulations.

Henry Mitchell Play Sculpture, Philadelphia, 1955

2011-08-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

According to the sculptor's website, this was originally in a playground at Bustleton and Magee streets, and Mitchell did more playground installations in the city, though this is the only photograph I could find. Any information from my Philadelphia readers?

Also if you haven't stopped by the Forum lately (get there via the header at the top of the blog page), please note a playground internship opportunity, and an interesting query from Michel who is seeking to combine elements of farming and play at an orphanage in Africa. And New Zealand artist Amy Church is seeking a play internship in another part of the world..."I think that if amazing scenes can be dreamed up for movies and exhibitions why not for playgrounds too." I so agree!

Thanks to my twitter compatriot Nadia, the list of playground conferences and gatherings has been updated...if you know of others please add to the list.

Les Abattoirs de Casablanca Playground, Rietveld Academy DesignLab, April 2011

2011-08-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

In April 2011, nineteen students of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie/ designLAB designed and realised a playground on the terrain of the Anciens Abattoirs of Casablanca, Morocco...the playground came about in close collaboration with local craftsmen and construction workers. The remains of the playgrounds designed by Aldo van Eyck in Amsterdam served as a starting point. His statement that not the object but the child itself should move was revisited, resulting in five new playing elements. Shaded benches that welcome the parents to the site surround these elements. And a carefully composed master plan studies the way the playground fits within the grid formed by a cluster of heritage buildings. The applied materials and techniques, such as concrete, rope and nets from the fishing harbour, wooden scaffolding beams and metal are locally largely available. Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens are public space designers and work as teachers at the designLAB department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. They were responsible for the program, briefing, working method and coaching during this project."

Aldo van Eyck was one of the few people (even today!) to understand the playground as a means not an end. He would have approved of this playscape as a device to attract mothers and families living in a fragile area into a space where they can experience social services and exchanges.

Part of the brief for this playground included the ability to both repair and reproduce it locally. Playgrounds that focus on local materials are sometimes lacking in other design qualities, but even with materials limitations the designLab students devised a playscape that is both aesthetically and spatially sophisticated, including a shaded sandbox/forest, a faceted dome, and swing buoys and fishing net towers that reflect local harbour materials.

See also a press release of the playground project (in French) and a time-lapse video of some of the playground's construction sequence.

Images by Krijn Christiaansen, Cathelijne Montens, Sophie Krier, Alexander Spiliopoulos via sophie-krier.

Vondelpark Playscape, Aldo van Eyck and Carve, 1968 and 2010

2011-08-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm traveling again (microscopy and microanalysis conference) so slow posting but in my absence the blog has quietly ticked past one million page views. Wow, thanks! Especially since I don't do anything to try to increase the views...I personally find those 'read more' buttons SO annoying.

All celebrations here at playscapes involve Aldo van Eyck, who--if you're just joining us--constructed over 700 playgrounds in Amsterdam after World War II and inspired this blog. One of those playgrounds was at Vondelpark, where he installed two of his characteristic circular play areas, this time surrounded by extensive garden plantings, in 1968.

To add adventure to the park and extend the age ranges engaged with the playscape the dutch firm Carve added two towers between the van Eyck circles. The towers offer a range of challenges to children of different ages and abilities--netted interiors, high and low slides and an elevated crawlway.

In another area of the park, Carve added a a challenging 75-meter long canopy walk where platforms and nettings are used to intensify the feeling of vertigo and adventure, and safety surfacing is intentionally minimized in favor of natural wood chips. As the trees in which the walk is embedded grow taller it will disappear into the canopy, becoming in the summer a secret space amongst the leaves.

I especially love how this playscape respects the history of the park; even the structure of the towers refers to an adjacent pavilion that was built in 1927 in an Indonesian colonial style. Lifting the play above the ground not only adds adventure, it also leaves a small footprint that doesn't compromise either the historic van Eyck outlines or the precious open space of this urban park. Incorporation of history and sense of place keeps design from being shallow, which is why I feature so much playground history on the blog! Very well done by Carve, whose innovative outlook on play was one of the first designs featured here on playscapes.

And thanks to all you readers for being one of those million (well, at the time of this writing 1,004,787) page views!

Things-I-wish-I-saw-on-the-playground: Solar Machines

2011-08-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

My final slideshow for Dwell is online today: Mid-century Modern Design on the Playground. In its honor, here is a design by midmod master Charles Eames that I wish I saw on the playground, via aqua-velvet.

“There is little pertinence in asking what the toy is supposed to do. It is not supposed to do. It is supposed to be. Its whole function is in its being." In other words, it just plays.

Play Design Competition for Japan Earthquake-damaged Areas

2011-08-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to playscapes friend Tim Gill for passing on information about a competition to design new chidren's spaces for areas damaged in the Japan Earthquake. Sponsored by the Association for Children's Environment which is chaired by Mitsuru Senda, the competition is not linked to specific sites and doesn't guarantee construction, but it DOES represent a great place to submit new and innovative ideas about children's play environments. Spread the word!

Builder Boards by Jack McGee, Playground DIY

2011-07-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

The 'Builder Boards' from inventor Jack McGee are like Lincoln Logs for the backyard, and you can purchase them in fully and partially finished states from his website, or get the plans to make your own from his $13 how-to book (added to the sidebar Reading List). OR construct the vintage models straight from this 1953 Modern Mechanix article.

Don't miss Jack's other inventive DIY projects on his website, including a magnetic marble run, fun house mirror, and a busy box for special needs children.

"Surfacing guidelines? We don't need no stinkin' surfacing guidelines"

2011-07-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940

Image and caption submitted by reader Peter Hoh...thanks Peter! [original source]

Lekeskuptur, Hugo Wathne, Stavanger Norway, 1980

2011-07-15T22:46:00.000-07:00

Norwegian sculptor Hugo Wathne painted his concrete forms in bright colors for a sunny, open playscape at Auglend School in Stavanger, but left them unadorned for a stumble-upon glade in Middleheim Park, Antwerp. Do any of my Norwegian readers know if these are still in place?

Playtimes: A Century of Children's Games and Rhymes at the British Library

2011-07-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

Featuring film and audio clips from as early as 1900, the British Library's Playtimes website "explores the enormous diversity of children’s games as well as the changes and continuities of play through time. Historical footage includes boys playing leapfrog, girls dancing to celebrate the end of World War One and numerous examples of children performing traditional songs and games such as In and Out the Dusty Bluebells, Hopscotch and Mummies and Daddies.

Contemporary footage has been filmed at two primary schools in London and Sheffield and includes children re-enacting TV game shows, computer game-style fights and pop songs."

This is an amazing project! But unfortunately the BL is very precious about their content...nothing can be downloaded for sharing, which is decidedly not in the spirit of playground games.

Playscapes at DWELL magazine

2011-07-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

DWELL magazine's latest issue is on family and play, and I'm so pleased to have been asked to supply some online content for them over the next month. The first slideshow, 'An Introduction to Modern Playscapes', is online now. If you're a longtime follower of the blog, you've seen most of these images before, but it has been an interesting exercise to compile my personal faves and I hope it will serve as a quick way to introduce the idea of a playscape as a total designed space for play: so much more than a flat piece of ground with some poles and platforms.

Wired magazine has retweeted it to their close to a million followers! Watch for a new slideshow every Monday for the next month.

La ville molle (Soft City), Raum, Bourges France, 2010

2011-07-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

La ville molle (part III) from Raum Raum on Vimeo.

We take the ground plane for granted, assuming that it won't shift beneath our feet.
But Raum Architecture's installation "questions the harshness of the city and the ground's capacity to change".

Their surprising, playful intervention was co-produced by the National School of Art de Bourges, the FRAC Centre and carried out with the collaboration of the city of Bourges and its downtown Council district.

Wondering about its secrets? All is revealed in the construction video below...

La ville molle (part I & II) from Raum Raum on Vimeo.

[Musical accompaniment by the french band "Mansfield Tya" (http://www.mansfieldtya.com/)]

Playground Dollhouse, c. 1910

2011-07-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

a beauty from the archives of the Library of Congress.

By the City for the City...submit play ideas for NYC!

2011-07-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

I missed the beginning of this contest, in which NYC's Institute for Urban Design (IfUD) in New York City solicited ideas about how the city's public spaces could be improved, and received nearly 550 ideas from residents across five boroughs.

#416 Wouldn’t it be great if...there were more simple (read: inexpensive) but creative play spaces around the city for both kids and adults, like last year's PS1 courtyard installation?

#480 Wouldn’t it be great if...stormwater was displayed under bridges in an interesting way.

#465 Wouldn’t it be great if...there were ziplines crossing the east river?

#323 Wouldn’t it be great if...any wall could become a contested space.

The second phase of the contest is to responses to these ideas. Define a specific site and prepare a short design brief that shouldn't be "too technical—the goal is to find great ideas that can capture the public imagination and start conversations, so even a single rendering qualifies; have fun with it!”

There is a $25.00 submission fee, but ALL submissions will be published in an “Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York,” and one prizewinner will be selected for each borough plus five additional winners at the discretion of an interesting group of jurors: architect Thom Mayne (Morphosis), Bary Bergdoll (Architecture Curator, Musem of Modern Art), Ned Cramer (Editor-in-Chief of Architect), and Janette Sadik-Khan (NYC Transportation Commissioner) , among others.

Only a week to submit your proposal...they're due July 14th!

I hope there are some amazing play designs submitted...what a great venue for submitting your own great ideas (I know you have them) to one of the world's great cities!

Friday Forum: Play Design Training

2011-07-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

Recently I was looking at the work of a firm whose playful, but not specifically playground, installation I had featured on the blog. It turned out that they had also done some playground sites as part of large park developments; all of which were unimaginative and based on manufactured components. And I wondered, why the difference? Why would a firm that clearly had the capacity to be playful and creative when designing a park or a garden fall back on old standards when given a 'playground' brief? I know, I know, maybe they were confined by their overlords to boring equipment. But that isn't a satisfying answer since designers routinely fight for their creative work. Was something lacking in their training or experience that kept them from seeing 'playground' as 'one-of-the-most-exciting-spaces-I-could-ever-be-asked-to-design'?

So I've been asking people in the landscape architecture/architecture world if they talked about play at all in their training, and the answer has been consistently 'no, not once, not at all'.

What about you? Did your LA/Arch course discuss play? If you make playgrounds, how did you get there? Do you know of any courses that specialize in the design of physical space for play? Do you think there ought to be one? What might it include? See you in the forum. (comment under Friday Forum: Play Design Training)

P.S. If you haven't been following the forum lately, please note a job posting from Theories Landscapes in London, and an interesting discussion on stray toys left on the playground, or add to the list of scrap stores!

Octetra, Isamu Noguchi, 1968

2011-06-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Dattner's structure are themselves derivative in some ways of Isamu Noguchi's Octetra, originally cast in concrete and installed near the Spoleto Cathedral in Italy in 1968 and then subsequently re-made in fiberglass and installed at numerous locations around the world (I'm not quite sure how this works...are all of these considered 'Noguchi's'?) While honoring Noguchi as a sculptor, one must be careful of being too deferential to him as a playground designer. Octetra is scaled for monumentality rather than for children; compare its size to Dattner's construct. And the need to set it up on blocks to enable entry from beneath is an awkward compromise between the sculpture and the play. (Note that the later fiberglass versions simply rest on the ground; improving the sculpture but removing a play feature).

Someday I will have the time to write an entire blogpost on Noguchi's playgrounds, but today, waiting for a train in Paddington Station, is not that day. For now I will just say that as with Octetra, it is the sculptural qualities that drive even his play designs, not the play experience itself, which leads to an uneasy rapprochement between the visual and the play experience.

This is an important issue in the design of public features intended to be experienced both as sculpture and as playscape. Which part of that experience is most important? Is it possible to reach a greater unity between them than Noguchi did with Octetra? Do you know of public play sculptures that do?

Richard Dattner's Play Cubes, 1976

2011-06-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

The Japanese climbing structure reminds me of the interlocking cuboctahedra designed by architect Richard Dattner in 1976-1977, which he patented and called 'playcubes'. His goal was to provide a flexible and low-cost solution for small playgrounds; estimating in 1977 that a standard installation would cost around $7500. They've been the subject of an interesting series of blog posts (to which Dattner himself responded!) at the blog daddytypes (here and here), and a set is still in place at the South Park playground in San Francisco.

First image from Richard Dattner Architect: Selected and Current Works----Master Architect IV (The Master Architect Series, 4), Second image from Patent No. 3,632,109: Richard Dattner, Modular Recreation Unit and Combinations Thereof , third and fourth are of the South Park installation, from Susan Solomon's website.

A Natural Playscape by Kate Hazell

2011-06-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

I'm in Edinburgh at the moment (slow posting due to travels!) and just bought this beautiful print of a fantasy natural playground by Edinburgh College of Art trained Kate Hazell at the Red Door Gallery. Apologies for the poor lighting from the cafe window because, well, it is Edinburgh. Just wanted to share!

Modular Climbing Boxes, Kodomo No Kuni Park, Yokohama City, Japan

2011-06-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Via the blog Lost Tokyo, great modular climbing boxes at Kodomo No Kuni park in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. No info on designer or date; if you can provide them please get in touch! These hexagonal forms, perfect for creating three-dimensional beehive structures, were popular during the self-build seventies, which gives this structure a nice retro feel.

Schulberg playground, Wiesbaden Germany, Annabau, 2011

2011-06-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

For a playground situated in the city center, architects Annabau designed a continuous climbing structure that winds through existing trees. Twists and height changes of its frame not only increase the play interest, but also respond to the site; creating entrance frames into the interior, space for additional play eqipment like swings, and lookouts that complement the architecture of the center city.

I'm impressed by the way this single structure offers play challenges for all ages. Annabau wisely chose to consider the net separately from the frame; at places the frame rises while the net falls into large, loose spaces. Flat, low areas of the frame add to the nets rubber pads for walking across and trampoline-like sections for jumping. The interior of the pentagon, which references the shape of historic Wiesbaden, has sand and modeled hills to allow for quieter play. Brilliantly done!

via archdaily and landzine

Scrap Stores for the Playground

2011-05-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

In researching the previous post, I came across the mention that the 'yellow submarine' had been repainted with paint provided by the Children's Scrap Project in Hackney, London, which collects waste from businesses (including paint) for free, performs a health and safety check, then displays materials in a warehouse for members to use for education and play alike...a boon to the adventure playground or the DIY playscape.

The Children's Scrap Store in Bristol is a similar organization which goes an exciting step further by providing The Scrapstore PlayPod™: a container full of repurposed materials and equipment (loose parts) for play. See it in action:

There is also a more detailed video of the playpods here. There are currently 28 schools that have a Scrapstore PlayPod™ in their play ground; it's a fast-growing concept that I'd love to see spread to other countries, especially my own USA. Of course, here you can pay $7k to $25k (near as I can tell; prices are notably absent from their publicity) for some blue polyethylene foam pieces Designed By David Rockwell and heavily promoted by Kaboom. Make up your own mind.

There is a nationwide Scrapstores charity in the UK, which maintains a directory of all scrapstores there. I'm wondering about scrapstores in other countries...I know of a few here in the USA but no comprehensive directory. So, dear readers, tell me what you know about scrapstores! Is there one in your area? Do you use it? If you know of a scrapstore, add it to the list I've started in the forum.

Apes at Play, Adventure Playground Builders

2011-05-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

The firm 'Apes at Play', adventure playground builders, were responsible for achieving the complex constructions of the recently posted Kilburn Grange Adventure Playground, and their website contains some detailed views of the truly complicated features there as well as other playgrounds with recycled boats and local references: red buses and yellow submarines!

Introducing Biba!

2011-05-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

It’s rare that ‘electronic games’ and ’outdoor play’ enter the same conversation, except as rhetorical enemies. So I’m really excited to be part of a team working to make them playground friends. Funding from the Canadian government has enabled us to fast-track a prototype, and these pictures are from our first live playground test, just last week! So exciting. (don't worry, it will be tested with girls, too)

It’s the culmination, for me, of an early awareness that no matter how much I promoted great playgrounds, they would always only be available to relatively few kids. And how do you improve the play experience of more children, more places? If they have a poorly designed playground or a broken down slide, or a littered vacant lot and no prospect of changing that? Virtual space…virtual playground space. Social, heads-up play aided and abetted by mobile devices. That’s the goal of what has been christened ‘Biba’…it re-imagines the admonition to ‘turn off that game, go outside and play’, to ‘take that game and go outside and play!’ We’re committed to deeply involving children in the design process, enabling physical activity, sociability and different play styles, and creating a heads-up game environment where the virtual world is secondary to the real one, not the other way around.

There will be lots more news as we move forward, but for now, if you have kids ages 6-14, please pop by this survey link and answer a few short questions about their use (or lack thereof) of mobile devices. And how you might feel about them playing with your expensive smart phone…

Jiangyin Sports Park and Shanghai Fengling Park, Robin Armstrong, BAU, 2010

2011-05-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

When I visited China a couple of years ago I saw few playgrounds of any sort, much less well-designed ones. But reader Robin is now working there for Shanghai-based but Australian-born architecture / landscape/urban design office BAU, in an environment that he says allows him more creative scope in playscape design than the West.

"Jiangyin sports park - The playground company we work with for our custom projects specializes in rope and steel structures, so I tailored my design accordingly, and experimented with some unusual geometries. My goal was to create equipment that is as interesting for adults to explore as observers as it is fun for kids to play in."

"Shanghai Fengling park - For this project I related to the riverside context of the park (adjacent to Suzhou creek) by integrating salvaged freighter ship parts from a nearby ship breaking yard into the design, both as sculptural and functional elements. "

Robin also informed me that 'playscapes' is blocked in China, as are all blogspot blogs, apparently! Here's hoping for both more playgrounds and more freedom.

Playful edges at the Lackenbach Arboretum, Austria, 3.0 Landscape Architects

2011-05-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Waaay back in the blog's history I did a post about utilizing the edge of a playground as a track for high-energy runners...taking what is essentially a border and making it a functional part of the playground space. This intriguing edge--fun topography, lit from beneath---surrounds an aboretum, not a playground (though those grasses are incredibly playful!) but should inspire more useful, purposeful, playful 'edges'. Why waste what could be playable space? Have you seen any intriguing edge strategies?

(found at both landzine and vulgare)

Transparency on the playground

2011-04-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the radio silence this week...occasionally other demands overtake me!

Growing up, the science museum in my state had a transparent playground structure that I thought looked like soap bubbles....and which I was reminded of by the amazing sticky-tape spaces constructed by Vienna and Zagreb based architects Numen/For Use. I'm interested in how the creative use of transparency can heighten the instinctive feeling of vertigo and awareness of the possibility of falling...allowing a space that is quite safe to take on air of risk and the uncanny. Which of course is far more interesting to children.

[vintage bubble playground structures from a c. 1970s domus magazine, posted on flickr by leonardo.bonnani]

[photos of the Numen installations are all over the web, these are from source and source]

[search youtube for many more videos of numen's sticky-tape work, including construction of their projects]

Playable sculpture by Robert Tully, Colorado

2011-04-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

One of many good thoughts currently percolating around the idea of playable urban space has to do with the role of public art, which judging by my email alot of you are thinking about. A shift in thinking of public art as something to be interacted with rather than gazed upon could play a significant role in moving the discussion of playable space away from demarcation (this area is a playground, this area is not) towards gradient : a variety of playable spaces along a spectrum that extends from no-play (obviously say, railroad tracks) to devoted-to-play spaces (playgrounds) , but with all conceivable points in between.

Reader and London playground chat attendee Lianne sent me the work of Robert Tully with which I'm quite impressed, not least because it so beautifully expresses the history and genius loci of Colorado, but also because it has so many creative, playable ideas from which to learn.

"Tradebeads" (Fort Collins, Colorado, cobblestones strung on stainless steel rods)

"Ripple Effects" (also Fort Collins, playable earthforms reclaiming a former dump site)

"Listening Stones" (Longmont, Colorado, parabolic seat carved into a river boulder to listen to the sound of the water)

"Gather Enough People" (cooperative play also in Longmont, instructions in the form of a riddle lead participants to open the scupture at the top by gathering three or more on the platform)

"Prairie Underground" along the same trail in Longmont lets visitors discover carved grounddwellers...the half-hidden nature of these carvings would delight children. There need to be more 'hidden' things on playgrounds that can be discovered, over and over again.

"Kestrel's Way", same Longmont trail (I really must visit)--simply bending a standard trail out over a small incline provides a vertiginous experience that children love...the feeling of risk in a still-safe setting.

"Waterline", same trail, reminds that 'natural playgrounds' must do more than plop down a boulder in some grass and call it good. Adding a carving provides scope for endless crayon tracings!

"Visions born by this River", Gates Crescent Park by Children's Museum, Denver, uses river boulders with minimal carvings to represent native animals, inviting the children to use their imagination to complete the scene.

"Visions" is one of several dedicated playgrounds by Tully; another is the "Miner's Dream" in Breckenridge, Colorado. Keeping on this idea of a gradient, I think it is significant that the dedicated playground space is only a part of a collection of eight pieces that form "a landscape based on history of the mining town, nature and imagination. Five pieces are in a playground while three are outside the playground on the plaza and in the river, breaking the usual playground boundary to become an overall sculpture about creating one's future from past materials." They include "Human Scale," an interactive sculpture,with platforms that people can stand on like a giant miner's balance. Old iron wheels can be turned to move stone animals as counterweights and balance with an adult, and there is also a small "Three-Way Scale," designed for more complex balancing with sand. "Slide and Steps," is a polished glacial boulder for sliding, and historic narrow guage rails are used as balance beams. The stone and wood "History House" is sunken so kids can play in the attic, and the "Rock Person" provides the negative space of the human figure.

This has been a long post, but I wanted to include so many of Tully's amazing ideas...inspirational for playscapes everywhere. All photos and text from Robert Tully's website.

Leonardo's Seesaw

2011-04-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Playful marginalia from the Codex Leicester of Leonardo da Vinci, now owned by Bill Gates.

Playscapes Twitters!

2011-04-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

So by now you've probably noticed the new twitter box in the sidebar, hosted by Nadia. One of the great things about meeting some of my readers at the London playground chat and through the blog birthday is that a couple of people have actually offered to help out, which is fabulous! Twittering is just something I can't fit into my life at this point, so Nadia, who has just completed an amazing dissertation on the playability of public space for her MSc in Spatial Planning (which will be covered more on the blog later!) has stepped in to tweet out things that don't quite make it to the blog's front page, or don't fall within my focus on the built environment of play, but are still of interest to playground people...follow @nadiaplayscapes for follow-ups to existing posts, alerts to new topics in the forum, and play-related news!

[image borrowed from Hitchcock's The Birds, which is not a happy scene on the playground but seemed to suit this post...I hope there will be a lively (and not at all sinister) group of playscapers on twitter!]

Kindergarten Kekec, Arhitektura Jure Kotnik, Ljubljana Slovenia, 2011

2011-04-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

The facade of a building is a tremendous, and often missed, opportunity to create playable space (see an exception, the previously blogged WOS 8). Slovenian studio Arhitektura Jure Kotnik used rotating vertical shutters, painted in bright colours on one side and plain wood on the other, over a glazed facade for a kindergarten in Ljubljana. The construction, which could easily be adapted as a playground feature, or part of a fence, used prefabricated wood and was built in just three days. Absolutely brilliant.

[via dezeen]

Wikado Playground, 2012 Architecture, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2009

2011-04-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on the Baunetz Woche article (now corrected, see below) in doing some background on this playground, which they also featured, but which was originally on landzine.

It reminds me that if I go to work veeery early in the morning (which isn't often) I will pass trucks bearing the flightless wings of giant windmills, ferrying them down to the windfarm being planted in the southwest part of my state. Here, 2012 Architecture, which emphasises reuse strategies, has incorporated them into a more playful setting. The windmill wings provide a surprising array of spatial types and happily, even in such an artificial setting water/mud play has been provided for as well. Their re-use strategy extends to the use of fighter pilot cockpit covers atop the towers, and slides repurposed from the previous playground.

"This playground is designed with 5 windmill wings and the existing trees on site as a starting point. 4 off the 30 meter long polyester wings are cut into towers and laying objects. The composition of these big accessible volumes defines the different areas of the playground. Each tower has its own character: watchtower (with two f-16 cockpits on top) slide-tower (with two reused slides from the old play-garden) water-tower and 'apartment tower. In the 'cage' that is defined by the towers and the nets the kids can play football on a floor made of recycled football shoes. Now the wikado system is developed and can be used to generate any size and kind of playground!"

[read an interview with the playground's creators here]

Do you recognize these photos?

2011-04-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

If you've followed playscapes very long then you do....the German periodical Baunetz Woche has just done a special issue on playgrounds. It includes a page of 'retro' photographs, as well as an 'image of the week'...all of which have been previously featured on this blog...the ONLY place most of these images can be found outside of archives. And they've shamelessly used them all without crediting playscapes as the source.

I've grown accustomed to the use of a few photographs, or of site ideas, from the blog without credit; usually by people who are probably just thoughtless though occasionally in newspapers as well. But this wholesale use-without-attribution, from a large mainstream publication that knows the definition of plagiarism, is really upsetting.

I suppose the blog has become well-known enough to be a resource to other writers, but not so well-known as to make them worry about any repercussions from their blatant 'borrowing'.

[If you'd like to express displeasure to Baunetz, their contact form is here: http://www.baunetz.de/mitarbeiter_kontakt_29858.html]. It's in German, but pretty self-explanatory. I wrote to them in English.]

UPDATE: Baunetz Woche has updated their site to credit playscapes. Thanks to those of you who contacted them on my behalf!

Small Climbing Walls

2011-04-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone wants a big hill on their playground, but don't neglect even a small change in grade...it would allow the construction of a short, cobbled retaining wall, like that installed by the firm LandCurrent at a toddler play area in Salem Oregon. Perfect for small feet...such a nice idea!

Put Swings back on the Playgrounds of Detroit

2011-03-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

There will be lots more to say about the 'why playgrounds aren't better' question (there's no time limit on your responses), but I think at least one piece of the answer is that the funding mechanisms currently available presume a certain type of playground...one that is heavily dependent on stock manufactured components.

One counter to that is bypassing traditional funding sources by going directly to donors, and in this arena kickstarter has not only stepped out of the box, but broken it to pieces. Their brilliant approach is to use what is essentially a renaissance-style patronage model, only now anybody, not just kings and queens, can be a patron! So I was pleased to find this project by a group that calls itself the 'Detroit Mower Gang' and wants to put swings back on the empty swing frames of Detroit:

I know I've got lots of readers, but let's try an experiment to see how much of a playground community we are!
If you back the swings for Detroit (and you can do so for as little as a dollar) after seeing this, leave a comment on the kickstarter project after backing that you heard about it on playscapes. Or if you don't feel comfortable doing that, leave it here in my comments.

Please note that although the Detroit swing project had a modest goal (just $800, probably to make sure they met it), the founder says that to replace all the swings will be closer to $7000. Since this is a group of people already mowing the parks of Detroit with their own lawnmowers, I have no doubt they'll make good use of the funds.

Let's be a playscapes community!

AT 11OO US CST THE KICKSTARTER SITE IS HAVING INTERMITTENT PROBLEMS...PLEASE CHECK BACK LATER. IF THE ABOVE LINK DOESN'T WORK BUT YOU CAN GET TO KICKSTARTER.COM DO A SEARCH ON 'DETROIT SWINGS'.

Friday Forum - What are the barriers to more imaginative playground design?

2011-03-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who has used the forum so far to ask a question, leave an answer, or post a playground!

Don't think that you have to be an organization to list yourself as a 'playground person'...if you read the blog then you're a playground person. One of the things that has happened as the blog has grown is that people get in touch with me asking about play organizations, or sites or providers, or just other interested people, in their geographic area. Sometimes I can help, but not always. The forum is word searchable, so if you add yourself as a playground person, say as 'Elmo, interested in urban playspaces, New York City', then anyone else seeking kindred playground spirits in New York City, or urban play, can connect.

When you write a blog for three years, the question that naturally arises is 'Whew, how long am I going to do this?' I've no idea WHEN I'll stop (not anytime soon), but I do know WHY I want to stop...because innovative playgrounds have become so normal that there is no longer a need for a blog that highlights them.

Towards that goal, I hope the forum will be a place we can talk about how to get there. So on Fridays, I'll pose a question for discussion that I hope you'll help me answer. Why AREN'T imaginative playgrounds the norm? What are the barriers to better play spaces? See you in the forum.

Things-I-wish-I-saw-on-the-playground: fields of balloons

2011-03-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

One of the favorite types of posts that I do is the things-I-wish-I-saw-on-the-playground...it now has it's own category in the side bar. I was incredibly pleased when a reader got in touch earlier this year to say she was adding funnels to her playscape based on this previous things-I-wish-I-saw post of a 'funnelscape' for rainwater in Dresden. So to add to the inspiration, here is the 'Museum of Possibilities', a temporary installation by livingwithourtime to collect thoughts on the potential use of a public space in Montreal.

[photo by varial, found at bobulate]

Oppenheimer Park, Vancouver Canada, space2place, 2010

2011-03-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

Playscapes friend Jeff Cutler has opened a new playground in Vancouver, Canada with many of the same wonderful features as in his previously blogged Garden City playground...well done (again) space2place!

"Located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Oppenheimer Park has a storied past and has served numerous roles in the community throughout its history. This park has always been a place of personal and cultural expression - a place where marginalized communities looking to express their culture have found common ground to share with friends and neighbours.

In recent years, the facilities in Oppenheimer Park had fallen into disrepair, which was contributing to the social challenges of the park and surrounding neighbourhood. The challenge for the park redesign was to create a place that reflects the history, social significance, and recreation needs that are relevant to this underserved community."

The playground is set amongst a grove of existing cherry trees providing well defined space and shade in the summer. The design is focused on providing creative play opportunities, avoiding obvious themes, which allow the children to make the space their own. Included in the design is a water pump, weir and water channel that ties the entire play area together. The design also features a double swing set, climbing poles and a "wyldwood" climbing structure. The playground is entirely accessible to children of all abilities."

One of the things I really appreciate about space2place's work is their thoughtful use of rugged planting materials to enhance the playscape. Nothing fussy here, just a good selection of dramatic plants that would appeal to any child. I'm baffled as to why more commercial playground providers don't just plant some plants...it would add so much to even the most banal installation, and it's not a difficult (or unsafe!) thing to do.

In these current photos of the Garden City playground, with the plants now well grown-in, you can see how much they enhance the space (notice how the red leaves echo the red poles!)...

P.S. I'll be in Vancouver in a couple of weeks myself. If you're interested in having a playground chat and seeing Jeff's work, let me know!

And the winners are...

2011-03-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

The winners of the Aldo van Eyck book giveaway are Cheryl (in the comments) and veronicaskk (in the forum), as selected by the random number generator at random.org! You two send me an email with your postal address and I'll get your books right out. Let me know if you'd like me to inscribe them to you.

And even if you didn't win, thanks so much for the many comments. Knowing something of who you are--guerilla knitters, Azerbaijani expats and all--makes a surprising difference to me as I write the blog. And my motivation is just that it matters, so thanks for letting me know!

Lots more to come...it's going to be a great fourth year!

Happy Birthday Aldo! Happy Birthday Blog!

2011-03-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

"Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more." ~Aldo van Eyck

So today, March 16, Aldo van Eyck would be 93 years old. And this blog is 3 years old, started (serendipitously, because I didn't know it then) just a couple of days after, on March 18.   I thought at the beginning that maybe I would post for about three months and stop, because that was all the material I had, all that I had been able to find deep in google search pages about playgrounds that were different and interesting; interesting enough to keep track of and think that someone else might want to see them too.

But happily I'm still writing--often, as right now, late at night, after work, still in the lab, watching the ion beam and thinking about playgrounds. Which is what it takes to keep a one-person volunteer blog going when it has grown way beyond any reasonable expectation.   When I started the blog, it was months before I had a single reader, and even after a year I was only running maybe a hundred people a day. There has been no big moment--I never got picked up by notcot or swissmiss or heralded on huffpo--just a gradual gathering of people who care about play, and who know we need to do better by it, and who feel, often intuitively without knowing exactly why or how, that play is better when the space for play is better, and who somehow find their way here, because that's exactly how I felt when I started the blog though now I think I know a little more of the why and the how.

But for a blog with this many readers, I don't get so many comments (big shout out to the exception to that rule, my faithful commenter Michelle!) and I do occasionally endure the unkind email from someone who doesn't like playscapes, or feels threatened by what I do, or has sent me something that I haven't gotten to post or respond to yet. Such is the internet. SO, if playscapes has helped or inspired you in any way from these last three years, I would love to hear about it. Especially if you did something different, or advocated for a better playground space, because of what you saw here. Seriously. It would warm the cockles of my heart.

To help you to overcome your natural shyness, dear readers, I have two of the fabulous books about Aldo van Eyck's playgrounds as inducement. Yes, that expensive one under the reading list in the sidebar. One will be awarded, at random, to someone who leaves a comment attached to this post. The other will be given, at random, to someone who posts in the new PLAYSCAPES FORUM...a venue for those who make space for play!   (Get to it by clicking on the 'playscapes forum' at the top of the blog page.)

I've wanted for a long time to bring you all together as a community, and am so excited to launch the forum, and really hopeful that it will be a place of active discussion and engagement. To be eligible for the book, you can comment in one of the sub-forums or topics I've created or simply leave a greeting or suggestion about the forum (yes, suggestions please!) in reply to my 'welcome' message. If you have a play area that was inspired or helped by something you saw here, please add it to the 'post your playscape' section (the whole forum supports photos and video) and I'll do a mashup of the submissions!

With your indulgence, I'll be reflecting all this birthday week on some things I've learned since starting the blog, on where I think playground development is at and where it's going, and on what I'm hopeful for.

'Til then, see you in the forum. Happy Birthday Aldo! Happy Birthday Blog!

P.S. As I note in the forum I have to do my own tech support and I'm rubbish at it so if anything goes wrong with the launch please be patient!

P.S.S. To be eligible for the book giveaway, make your posts by the end of this week (Saturday, March 19, MY midnight, which is US CST). And yes you can post BOTH in the comments and the forums, if you'd like, to give yourself two chances.

Olle Eksell and Egon Moller-Nielsen on the Playground, Stockholm, Sweden

2011-03-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've featured Egon Möller-Nielsen's trippy playground constructions on the blog before so my spine tingled when I saw this drawing by Swedish illustrator Olle Eksell which shows the egg in its midcentury setting at Tessin Park in Stockholm! I don't know the name of this drawing or where it appeared...I found it on a website that now appears to be defunct. If you have any information do please let me know. There is a new book on Olle Eksell (Olle Eksell: Swedish Graphic Designer ) being released in April...perhaps I'll find the answer there.

[photo by la-citta-vita via flickr]

And that's how you do a playground hill...more work from Erect Architecture

2011-03-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

Other projects by Erect Architecture show some of the best use of topography I've seen anywhere...they recognize the hill as a geometric construct rather than just a pile of dirt; one that creates interesting spaces above, below, and beside, all with potential for play, as well as for loosely defined hang-out spaces loved by teens and tweens. If you're installing a playground hill, ask yourself what interesting things you could do above, below, and beside it. Also, note that the hills are steep enough to feel risky, which is vital! The photos here are from Erect's Evelyn Hill Park installation in Hackney London, but peruse their website for other inspirational playground topographies.

Kilburne Grange Adventure Playground, Erect Architecture, Camden London, 2010

2011-03-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

Given the enviable site of an old Victorian arboretum, it was natural that the story of this playscape be about trees...

"It is a dense structure, which plays with character of trees...sets up a relationship with adjacent school building and vantage points (into park). There are light and open, small and cosy, fast and slow spaces of different timber materialities."

Throughout the project, erectarchitecture ran workshops exploring the idea of 'what is adventure?' " During the first session the children where asked to state their idea of adventure on signs, which were permanently fixed in on site in the park, announcing the project to the wider community. Free-running workshops with Parkour Generations explored ‘Movement as Adventure’ and controlled risk taking. ‘Nature as Adventure’ introduced the children to playing with nature and natural materials but also to making spatial propositions. ‘Design as Adventure’ taught the children about structural principles, which they tested on simple large scale models afterwards making propositions for playground structures."

I think this design is particularly brilliant at incorporating the sense of risk, and encouraging risk-taking (love that canted log rope-walk), within a 'safe' structure. Notice also the use of doors as a motif (who doesn't want to open a door into a secret land!) and in the best tradition of repurposed materials on the adventure playground.

The Red Swing Project

2011-03-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

An addition to last week's focus on swings is the lyrical "Red Swing Project", which started as an urban intervention in Austin, Texas in 2007. The Red Swing Project anonymously hangs red swings in public places worldwide--infusing playfulness into the urban environment--mindful that "one swing can turn a vacant lot into a park".

Red Swings have been installed in locations from India to Portugal: the simple red swing remains the constant while the environmental backdrops and cultural contexts change from place to place.

The Red Swing Project offers full DIY help with a ‘how-to‘ instructional video and manual, and even a handy fold-up knot menu to take with you when you install your swing.

One of the things I really want to focus on this year on the blog is empowering individuals to make playable space around them, without relying on big companies or even big charities to do so...watch for many more projects like this.

Red Swing Project Documentary from erin harris on Vimeo.

Go ahead and hang a red swing!

The playground art of Daniel Dove

2011-02-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Daniel Dove kindly responded to my query about why he uses playgrounds in his art, answering that in addition to their general appealing colors and shapes they also bear a structural resemblance to mid 20th century Abstract Expressionism ala Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Willem DeKooning, et al. with their all-over pipes and slides; structures that are also, in his words "the closest thing in the built environment to a human body, and given that I started my painting life as a devoted figurative painter, I am attracted to that anthropomorphic quality. I sometimes think of the pipes as intestines or limbs."

As anyone who has visited a McDonald's playground knows, these playgrounds "manifest a hyperbolic glee that I associate with consumer culture and advertising. They are so aggressively joyful-looking that they tend to become parodies of themselves, reaching a critical glee-mass that collapses into irony. I hope to capture some of this in my paintings."

This is especially true of the plastic playgrounds he depicts, which he gravitates toward "because plastic ages so badly and awkwardly, as opposed to metal or wood which acquires a patina of 'authenticity'. I like the awkwardness of used plastic. This is why the playscapes in my paintings usually have a kind of distressed or vomited-on quality, like a birthday party gone slightly awry. Once again, there is a certain ironic aspect to this, and perhaps a (gentle) commentary about the disposability of the contemporary built environment."

Ultimately, he uses the playscapes to combine both abstract and realist conventions in his paintings, in "all-over" compositions that fill the canvas with color and form. It strikes me that this is how a child sees a playscape: with it filling their eyes all over.

[from top to bottom above are Exploded View (2009), Funland 1 (2008), Overlap Version 1 (2005), Precita Playscape (2010), and Playscape (2005)].

Vintage Japanese Playground Swing, c. 1960s

2011-02-23T02:34:00.000-08:00

Rounding out our week of swings are these intriguing vintage Japanese constructions...they appear to be homemade out of two traditional frames, and offer a unique combination of swaying bridge and cooperative, standing swing. I like this.

These are some of the beautiful photos by Richard Tudor Hibbert, including shots of life in Japan in the late '60s, which can be found at the commemorative blog authored by his son Chris Hibbert .
Chris says these swings were common in Japan then.

Liberty Swing, Wayne Devine, 2000

2011-02-22T01:19:00.000-08:00

The Liberty Swing makes the classic heart-fluttering feeling of a playground swing available to those with disabilities as well...it accommodates all sorts of wheelchairs and also has a fold-down seat and seatbelt for users who are not in a wheelchair. Since it can take up to 550 pounds, adults can use it too.

At the Liberty Swing website you can see a list of all of the swings that are installed and there seem to be only about twelve in the United States...there should be more!

'Curl' Playground Swing, Milos Todorovic, 2010

2011-02-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Serbian industrial designer Milos Todorovic proposes a new swing form as well as a mechanical system that prevents the slide from moving if it is under or over weighted.

I especially like the way the swings can be put together....like cursive writing.

If you're an interested manufacturer (I see you people in the blogstats, even if you don't comment!), get in touch with Milos Todorovic at his website. Also see the previously-blogged Caracool slide by Joel Escalona.

Swing Necklace, Johanna Richter

2011-02-17T11:23:00.000-08:00

The yellow tube 'swings' have me thinking about innovative approaches to what is arguably the quintessential playground component...here, a 'swing necklace' made of 10 feet of felt or beechwood balls by German artist Johanna Richter, available (but pricey!) at sleekidentity. [found at handmadecharlotte]

Stringy yellow tube playscape, Blanton Museum of Art, Houston, Texas

2011-02-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin has a large outdoor installation of stringy rubber tubes that kids can tie into knots, or grab in bunches to climb or swing, or just run through! I love to see unconventional play materials.

photos via about Austin. I couldn't find the name of the designer or the date of the install (if you know, get in touch!) but it reminds me of this previously blogged 'Circle of Squares' installation made out of yellow pipes.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader maggie for letting me know that this is a piece by Jesus Rafael Soto, known for his penetrables: interactive sculptures of thin, dangling tubes designed to be moved through, in which the form of the sculpture is inseparable from the experience of the viewer.

Louis Häfliger Park, Kuhn Truninger Landscape Architecture, Zurich, Switzerland, 2003

2011-02-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

Impressive earthworks blended with intentionally old school playground equipment, by Kuhn Truninger of Zurich.
[found at a nice new landscape/architecture blog: sotto la vernice]

I like this playground, but I wish each of the earth mounds had a tree by it. Think of climbing up the mound, then into the tree, then jumping from the tree back down to the mound...

Infinite autonomous thanks

2011-02-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

67,000 page views and 37,000 unique visitors last month...hey, thanks! Especially since I remember how excited I was when the blog first hit 60,000 page views TOTAL. I'll do my best to keep you supplied with inspiring playscapes.

Above, the maze at the Dell Children's Hospital in Austin Texas (photo by peter tsai via flickr) and a temporary playground maze for a Renaissance Fair in Ohio [via bloggingohio].

One of the things we discussed at the playground chat in London was the idea of infinite vs. finite play. I've continued to think about that alot, along with the idea of autonomous vs. directed play, and how those are shaped by the built environment of the playground.

The Dell maze is impressive as an architectural construct but can't be reconfigured in any way. The temporary maze, on the other hand, can be reconfigured just by moving the fabric panels, so that the experience is always new; it moves more towards the infinite.

But probably only the grown-up mazekeeper (is there such a thing as the mazekeeper? Veery cool job title) is allowed to make changes in the walls of the maze, so it scores low on autonomy. Allowing the walls to become gates, so that the children could continually adjust their environment, would push the play experience even further toward the infinite and the autonomous. It would change the definition of a maze--traditionally a finite path with a definite goal--but allow for the continual creation of new games. (I bet they'd run more and faster, too...everybody moans about childhood obesity without thinking about how boring we've made physical activity.)

How can playground installations change to move toward autonomy and infinity?

I'm thinking of how we (brothers, sisters, and an assortment of neighbors!) used to play on the backyard swingset. We'd adjust the chain length on the swings (high, low, asymmetric) and prop up the slide for different angles. We'd raise the slide up completely, and slide the picnic table under it, then add another slide off the picnic table for a two-stager. It didn't really work that well but the fun was that we made it ourselves.

I know that this is what adventure playgrounds are all about. But the fact is that great as adventure playgrounds are, I don't think they're ever going to be widely available. A more egalitarian solution is to find ways to move existing structures, already acceptable in the public mind, towards autonomy and infinity.

Historic Earthworks for the Playground

2011-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned in the previous post about the Haye Playground by Mortar and Pestle that its snail-like forms have historic antecedents, which I did a series of posts about some time ago at my garden history blog (here, and here). Like all turf installations, they require maintenance but are relatively easy to construct for the playground, and a nice way to add historical context.

The spiraling snail mount was a favorite of the Elizabethans, included in an entertainment staged for Elizabeth I at Elvetham in 1591 in which the snail mount 'resembleth a monster', and was fired upon with cannon (see it there in the lower right corner)

Sir Francis Bacon's garden (c. 1620) had 'in the very middle, a fair mount, with three ascents, and alleys, enough for four to walk abreast; which I would have to be perfect circles...and the whole mount to be thirty foot high'. The snail mount was was a logical response to the desire to view a flat garden from a high overlook, and its wide, spiraling paths a practical way for heavily skirted ladies to ascend on a gentle incline.

The best surviving example is at Lyveden New Bield in Northamptonshire, where twin snail mounts arise from a moated landscape surrounding Thomas Tresham's haunting, never-finished Trinitarian retreat. (Highly, highly recommended for a visit.)

The horticulture students at Cornell University made a smaller construct...I particularly love the idea of a group of people 'walking in' the spiral to the top.

An even earlier model is the medieval turf seat (there's a good historical overview at the Met garden blog), which was sometimes just a shaped area of turf, with or without a seat back, but could also be framed into the seat shape by wattles or boards or masonry.

There's been a resurgence of interest in these 'green sofas' in the last few years....instructions for making a 'sprout couch' can be found at ReadyMade magazine, and there is a commercial kit for making a turf 'chair'. But I prefer simpler, less literal constructs, like this one from the Goresbrook park in Dangenham:

Or these by environmental artist Angela Ciotti from a 1983 installation in Pennsylvania:

And my favorite is the idyllic example painted by Ilya Repin in the waning, dappled days of the Russian elite.

Also note some earthworks previously featured on the blog: Maya Lin's wavefield, and the playhills of Dani Karavan and Parklife London.

Much more could be done with turf on playgrounds, so take this as inspiration!

"Centre of the World" climbing wall, Arkstudio Lamusuo, Vuokatti Finland, 2004

2011-01-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is the most beautiful play installation I've seen since I started the blog...the "Centre of the World" climbing wall by Arkstudio Lamusuo anchors the assembly hall of the Satuvakka day care center in Vuokatti Finland, giving it a planetarium-like feeling. The material is a grained plywood, worked into topographic layers and accented with gold leaf.

It also belongs to the Municipality of Sotkamo's art collection.

How many playscapes are beautiful enough to qualify for a place in a permanent art collection? How would playgrounds be different if they had to?

Vintage Japanese Playground Elephants

2011-01-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've made my periodic pilgrimage to the "Old Playground Furniture" group at flickr, and turned up a couple of interesting vintage Japanese designs: a two-stage elephant slide (photo by yoakenobang), and a mid-mod style elephant seat ([photo by joopy). As always, if you have additional info on these installations, get in touch!

Puckelball Pitch (the world's first!) Johan Strom, Malmö, Sweden, 2009

2011-01-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

The world's first Puckelball pitch is in use in Malmö, Sweden, a city notable for its commitment to creating new social spaces that encourage its residents to interact outdoors.

Also called 'Mogul ball' for its resemblance to the moguls on ski runs, the puckelball pitch (made of artificial turf) is a protected design concept by artist Johan Strom, who thinks of it as a metaphor for life:

"Many live under the belief that life is a fair playing field, that both pitch halves are just as big and the goal always has at least one cross. But ultimately the ball never bounces exactly where you want it to and the pitch is both bumpy and uneven."

As one of those uncoordinated kids that was always picked last for team sports, I would have loved playing in a setting in which "the pitch’s irregularities neutralise the players’ skills. It is not at all certain that the best football player is also the greatest puckelball hero. If the ball doesn’t bounce where you think it will everybody has a chance."

The unevenness of the field is intended to invite more imaginative ways to play, and to encourage play between girls and boys, old and young, skilled against unskilled, on equal footings, challenging the physical elitism inherent in most sporting activities. But serious footballers find it useful, too...for practice in responding to unpredictability.

How much do you want a puckelball pitch in your hometown? Yeah, me too. Let's start a movement.

(Malmö has more exemplary playscapes...watch for them in future posts!)

UPDATES: see also photos of the puckelball field construction by Bo Johnsson and a video about puckelball by the municipality of Malmo.

Playspace Design Competition, Killybegs Ireland, registration deadline 9 February

2011-01-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by the Donegal County Council Public Art Office in partnership with the Irish Architecture Foundation and the RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland), this one stage architectural competition seeks to be an exemplar for commissioning play spaces in Ireland and is open to architects and architect-led design teams.

It has an laudably ambitious brief:

"Commissioning Public Art does not mean merely providing the public with the most obvious and fixed solution, for this would preclude the possibility of truly innovative art. It involves a process of dialogue and expanding horizons in the sense that people cannot express a desire for that which they have not yet experienced. This PlaySpace should cultivate a greater understanding of place, allow children the fullest play experiences, and benefit their families and the wider community."

Killybegs is a small picturesque fishing town with a population of 1,289 (2006 Census) located on the northwest coast of Ireland. The PlaySpace site is a small green rectangular area (size .278 acres / .1126 hectares) surrounded on all sides by a low boundary wall and is located on your left-hand-side as you enter the town of Killybegs. The construction budget for the PlaySpace is €65,000.

Competition Registration Opens: 16 December 2010
Questions Deadline: 7 January 2011
Withdrawal of Registration and refund of fee: 10 January 2011
Answers Circulated: 19 January 2011
Registration Deadline: 9 February 2011
Submission Deadline: 21 February 2011
Assessment: March 2011

More information and registration at the competition site. [Thanks Ruben!]

Soe Ker Tie House, TYIN Tegnestue, Nah Bo Thailand, 2009

2011-01-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

TYIN Tegnestue is a non-profit composed of architectural students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and recently notable for their small-scale projects in Thailand that address social needs and cultural context without sacrificing architectural quality; characterized by innovative uses of local materials. Their Soe Ker Tie House project (Butterfly Houses, so named by the workers) for an orphanage on the Thai-Burmese border, was designed to "somehow recreate what these children would have experienced in a more normal situation. We wanted every child to have their own private space, a home to live in and a neighbourhood where they could interact and play."

So the the six sleeping units they constructed contain some dedicated playspaces of swings (built for one or many, that's important) and chess tables. But my favorite aspect of the project is that it incorporates many small elements that are play opportunities without explicitly making a playground; the whole site is eminently playable. Look for the bench between two trees, the stairsteps formed from tires, the changes in level, the intriguing windows...and do visit archdaily to see complete photos, including a beautiful library space and bathhouse they also built for the orphanage. TYIN Tegnestue are currently engaged in new projects in Haiti and Sumatra; can't wait to hear more.

Playground Paths from Soil?

2011-01-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

One of the vexing issues in playground design (and other landscape interventions for that matter) is the issue of paths: concrete is so raw in appearance (and don't get me started on faux concrete finishes), stone is expensive, gravel is messy, soil is muddy, mulch scatters and needs replacing...hoggin (a compactable mixture of sand, gravel and clay) is a favorite of mine but it's not readily available here in the US. So I was intrigued to run across the idea of 'soil stabilizers', which appear to be some sort of polymeric additive to existing soil that consolidates it to make a durable surface. [see a list of the multiple options at this site about trail surfaces]

The sites of commercial purveyors seem to be marketing to the military (quick runways and roads, that sort of thing) so I assume it's durable. Has anyone out there used these products? Thoughts or reviews?

House with a concrete slide, Aboday, Jakarta, 2010

2011-01-12T18:17:00.000-08:00

Does it say something about our need for play that this house with a concrete slide for getting from floor to floor was the most popular post of the year over at that most popular design site, dezeen? It goes from the child's room to the kitchen. The two best places in the house!

By Indonesian architects Aboday, photographed by Happy Lim.

Atomic Culture on the Playground, 1945

2011-01-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

"For years the playground in Washington Square has resounded to the high-strung anh-anh-anh of machine guns and the long-drawn-out whine of high velocity shells. Last Saturday morning a great advance was made. We watched a military man of seven or eight climb onto a seesaw, gather a number of his staff officers around him, and explain the changed situation. "Look," he said, "I'm an atomic bomb. I just go 'boom'. Once. Like this." He raised his arms, puffed out his cheeks, jumped down from the seesaw, and went "Boom!" Then he led his army away, leaving Manhattan in ruins behind him".

The New Yorker, August 18, 1945 (Nagasaki had been August 9)

I'm deep in Cold War culture at the moment...almost finished with a manuscript on the Atomic Gardens of the 1950s and 1960s. So posting may be a bit slow for about a week.

[image credit: Lauren Orchowski's Rocket playgrounds project...there's now a book!]

Vintage Chicago Playground Slide, Vivian Maier

2010-12-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

From the recently discovered photograph archives of Vivian Maier, a street photographer c. 1950-1990.

See more at John Malloof's blog, and read more at the Kickstarter project to document Vivian Maier's life.

Longtime readers will recognize this as one of the most delightful of the Fun-ful slides.

Mora Park Playground and Green Battle, Urbanarbolismo, Castell de Guadalest, Spain, 2010

2010-12-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

First, Spanish firm Urbanarbolismo generated a great inexpensive design for an unusual site with a serious problem of run-off from the surrounding mountains. To stay within a small budget of 14500 euro, they reused all existing street furniture, streetlights, benches, swings and slides, coordinating them with eye-popping orange paint that is echoed in the splashes of new safety surfacing. To deal with the water, all of the park slopes converge towards the central zone, where soil awaited planting. And then how to plant the space?

Wanting to encourage community involvement, Urbanarbolismo staged a "Green Battle" in which about 200 people threw seed-containing mud balls at each other until the battlefield/site (and themselves) were completely covered. Seeds included a grass to green the space quickly and native species such as thyme and heather to add permanent color and aroma to the playscape.

Playful installation...playful site! I'm so going to make my youth group do this next time something needs planting. Just add water.

Urbanarbolismo also has an award-winning strategy for using the 'la batalla verde' events to green-up public spaces, and you can send them a photo of your own tree and they will design a dream treehouse for it!

Playgrounds on Google NGram

2010-12-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

So of course I had to do some Ngramming of playground terms as soon as I heard about the new Google feature, which tracks mentions of words in their corpus of scanned media:

The word 'playground' really doesn't exist before 1800, and even then it is frequently used without reference to children (i.e. the Playground of Algiers). Note that 'playground' spikes in the early twentieth century, when the growth of urban areas generated a great deal of philanthropic activity around provisions for the needy in general and children in particular. There's a small spike during the mustachioed seventies, and I am pleased to see that interest has been rising since the mid-nineties!

'Playscape' doesn't enter the language at all until 1960, spikes in the 1980s as a new way of phrasing playgrounds, and seems to still be rising, though with a bit of a hitch. The Ngrams are based on google's 2009 holdings.

Most of the combination ngrams (like 'playground' with 'children', 'school, 'safety', etc.) don't work well because there are just so many more mentions of words like 'children'. But here is a fascinating one: the combined ngram of 'playground' and 'obesity'.

Note the point at which mentions of 'obesity' cross-over mentions of 'playground'....it's much earlier than I expected, about 1965. And it probably reflects mostly adult obesity but still, fascinating.

And one more, 'playground' and 'risk':

No particular correlation between the two, but it shows what playgrounds are up against...a virtually flat definition of risk that expands exponentially not in say, WWII or somesuch serious time, but in the late 1970s. And look at that line go.

The (awesome) Children's Play Information Service, London

2010-12-16T17:56:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the USA (and recovered from an unpleasant flu, for which I totally blame the arctic temperatures at the V&A Olympia archives where the librarians were sitting under BLANKETS but I had to check my coat in the locker!) so there will be be several follow-up posts from the London playground chat, which turned out to be a lively discussion amongst a diverse group of architect/landscape architects, representatives from playground charities and playground corporations, independent playground builders and other interested (and interesting!) parties. Thanks to all of you who attended, and do remember to keep in touch.

After the chat, some of us moved on to the Children's Play Information Service, whose library contained Every. Book. I have ever wanted to read about playgrounds. Including all those hard to find vintage titles from the heady self-building, mustache-growing 1970s. It was all I could do not to break out a pillow and settle in for the weekend. But I will save that for my next visit.

PLUS they provide a monthly newsletter for those in the play sector (subscribe or view archives here), AND a series of helpful factsheets on aspects of play and playsite development,
AND maintain a database of scholarly research into play.
The 'latest news' section of the website always has interesting links, like this one to a new pdf on play and toys for the blind and partially sighted, by the British Toy and Hobby Association.

Unfortunately they don't have an online catalog, but they do have Michael, Incredibly Nice Librarian, who is happy to help. Just email them if you have an enquiry or want to stop by...you may bump into me there!

P.S. CPIS is in danger of closing due to government cutbacks...they are only funded through the end of February, just in time for me to return and camp out in the stacks. If they were here I'd say 'write your congressman'! Can't do that, but using their services to show how valuable they are over the next two months can't hurt. If you're in the UK, get thee to the library, and the rest of you, sign up for the newsletter.

UPDATE: if you have a UK postcode you can sign a petition to save the CPIS here!

The Haye Playground, Mortar&Pestle Design, Southwark London, 2010

2010-11-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

"After consulting with local residents, together we decided that a traditional play set, swing and slide was a little bit boring and unoriginal and instead built these abstract hills made of concrete and grass, where the children could run, jump and play. Local residents really liked this idea and unofficially called the park 'Teletubby Land'."

"The Haye" as the park is known, is in Southwark, London. The playground was designed and built by Richard Knowles, of Mortar&Pestle Studio, May Safwat and Diego Ulrich and of course the many local residents of the park.

An inspiring (and historically relevant...more on that later) design by a young studio from whom I'd like to see many more playgrounds!

London Playground Chat, Friday December 3

2010-11-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks to playscapes friend Tim Gill, we'll be meeting next Friday from 12 - 2 at the German Gymnasium, Pancras Road, London N1C 4TB.

There is no charge (but also no lunch provided - though there will be teas & coffees). Thanks to Argent for providing the meeting room. Afterwards, some of us will also be making our way to visit the Children's Play Information Service (the world's largest library on children's play, likely to soon be defunct due to goverment cutbacks) and then later to see the Snug play kit (pictured, a movable parts playground that preceded the recent hoopla over David Rockwell's Imagination Playground-in-a-box) in use at Gillett Square, Hackney.

Numbers are strictly limited so if you haven't already done so, please RSVP...I'd love to see you there!

Kennington Playscape, make-good, Hoxton, London, 2010

2010-11-22T13:44:00.000-08:00

Make-good of London stepped in when the planning process for a new play area had become contentious. A series of meetings with the estate's young people, in which they built their ideas out of cardboard at 1:1 scale, resulted in the concept of an activity course in which cubes of various sizes and materials offered "opportunities to hide, jump, ride a bike or scooter, sit, socialise, and role-play".

Ultimately, 21 cubes were constructed: 8 of wood with open interiors to form chairs, chariots, soap boxes and hiding spaces, 8 solid cubes to line up as hurdles (or look at your reflection in the shiny stainless steel) and 5 'smooth and cooling' concrete cubes. All of the cubes can be used together as seating for an event.

I think it's fascinating that a resident's group that had been unable to come to consensus over 'traditional' designs presented by playground fabricators achieved unity with such a non-conventional plan. It's a testimony to the power of involving the community with the design process, and of their willingness to be more open to design innovation than we often assume.

The playscape's reception was summed up by a ten-year old resident: "I think it's magnificent and cool and exciting and it is much more fun than the old park. We made this one."

Catherine Greig is the founder and director of make:good, and I talked to her about posting her projects back in July yet here it is nearly December, which is just a reminder that if you send me stuff (which is great, keep doing it!) it may take me a month or so to get to your email and another few months for it to work its way onto the blog. There is a lot of correspondence to keep up with at this point, and also that pesky issue of keeping my real job going.

SO, if you happen to be in London and would rather just chat in person: I'm traveling over soon, and there will be an informal gathering from noon to two on Friday, December 3rd to talk about new playground ideas. If you're interested send a quick RSVP (by comment or by direct email, either way) and based on the number of replies a location will be announced shortly. Hope to see you!

"Shadow Play" by Richter Spielgerate

2010-11-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

Germany-based Richter Spielgerate has recently developed "Shadow Play", an interactive playground installation in which children (I think grown-ups would like this, too!) cast shapes and colors onto the ground plane by rotating panels attached at the top of a pole until their shadows overlap.

Each pole provides for 360 degree rotation, and the changing arc of the sun would require some really interesting angular adjustments to get the shadows to overlap, which a group could work together to achieve. What a great learning opportunity!

[found at colourlessdesign]

Treehouse, Drayton Park Primary School, drdh architects, 2005

2010-11-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

"The tree was the only natural feature in a hard urban playground, but had been fenced off due to its roots breaking up the tarmac surface and making it dangerous. The preparatory works for the tree house involved breaking up the surface around the tree to allow the roots access to water. This new ground was covered by the open deck of the interior floor of the house which surrounds the trunk. A spiral stair, with a rope handrail climbs up into the branches of the tree, allowing the children the opportunity to look across the playground from within the leaves. At the top of the stairs, provision for a future slide to be fitted was allowed, through a removable panel, once funding allowed."

A lovely solution for a lonely tree, constructed by the BA (Hons) Architecture students of Studio 1 in 2005 at London Metropolitan University under the leadership of Daniel Rosbottom and David Howarth, principals of drdh architects. The project was a finalist in the Architects' Journal Small Projects Award 2005.

Full disclosure: Daniel and David are my architects, my church's architects, and have lately been here in Oklahoma to eat hot dogs, see the buffalo and try to comprehend an OU football game. But mostly to bring our little congregation an amazing, innovative design for a new building that nestles into our 100 acres of prairie like it knew beforehand the tallgrass and the wind. There will, of course, be a playground. I'll keep you posted.

Woodthorpe Grange Playground, Keita Takahashi, Nottingham, UK (proposed)

2010-11-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Were Archigram around today, they might be video game designers, whose speculation in virtual reality can lead to equally interesting real-world structures. So kudos to Nottingham for giving a playground commission to Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy. (disclaimer: I'm not myself a gamer but am told on good authority that these are AMAZING.)

He's just released (still speculative) sketches and preliminary designs on his blog, with the goal of creating "something that anyone can play with, kids, adults, dogs. But the way 3 years old kids would play is very different from 5 years old. Besides that, who to play with is also a big element that changes the way they play. For example, they would play more safely with parents, while they would play more adventurously with other kids."

I've included mostly Keita's sketches here because they're so appealing, but it is interesting to watch their transformation into more concrete design images on his blog...he frankly acknowledges that many of his initial ideas "may be too dangerous"!

While the focus on this blog is often on the landscape of playgrounds, it's still nice to see fresh thinking about its components. [Thanks, Bryant!]