The Karmiel Family Park is considered a large urban park by Israeli standards. 18 dunams (around 4.5 acres) of attractions, slides, ropes, grasslands, bridges, balance beams, mini-golf, mazes etc. makes it a daring if not dazzling example of a multi-purpose park for every age group and demographic. The park was designed by the landscape architect Ruth Friedlander at a cost of around 7 million NIS (around 1.8 million USD).

This park that has more of a municipal and regional extent than a local neighborhood park. The most striking feature is the use of landscape to augment the play structures. Its various sections are geared towards different activities;  the designers having decided on a kind of episodic approach to the placement of different structures, equipment and activities.

At the park’s entrance  is a small cafe and  water features. These have become a popular element of park design in this region due to the relatively hot climate. Situated in the Lower Galilee, the City of Karmiel has a relatively comfortable climate, although during the summer months, not surprisingly, the water feature is one of the most popular parts of the park. Surrounding this water feature there are open- air fixed electronic games of different sorts. It would seem that the designers wanted to make the park more contemporary, although in my view these do not add much to the playground experience.

The scattering of the play features means that a large amount of people can use the park simultaneously, although it also means that contact between people using the various play structures is relatively small. People  can be seen making picnics in the areas between the play structures. The dramatic backdrop of the Upper Galilee makes for an ideal picnic space.Open-air bowling lanes, a mini football field, and concrete ping pong tables do encourage people who do not know each other to engage in common games and challenges – especially the mini football field which seemed ideally sized to encourage younger children to group together and challenge each other in a play area which was aptly scaled.

Many of the play structures are shaded with tensile structures. One of the most common complaints about parks by parents in the Middle East is that there is not enough shade in the play areas. In this case there is no doubt that there is plenty of shade.

The tall climbing structures stretch across artificial ravines, allowing the users dramatic views and seemingly dangerous experiences. Shrieks and timid crossings of these bridges shows that they are challenging for the younger users.  It should be said that  almost all of the play structures in the park are factory-made.

Two larger scaled parts of the park are the mini golf course and the maze. These two are mostly used by groups who come to the park together. One can see people make up rules and games for these two features. At the centre of the maze there is a wooden house that one can climb and it is named after a famous Hebrew Childrens book “A Flat for Rent” by Leah Goldberg. Bronze characters from the book can be found scattered around. When you climb to the balcony of the house you can see the entirety of the maze and large parts of the park.

The park is free for residents of the city, but visitors have to pay 20 NIS (about 5 USD) a person. A truly urban park should be free for all; a fact that seems to dampen the enjoyment from this impressive project. A city the size of Karmiel  (around 45 thousand inhabitants) cannot have many central parks of this size and so it would have been better served to get rid of this stipulation. This park has on-site staff and so, is well kept. It has the capacity to unify and bring together many different populations and the amount of people who use it testifies to the popularity and significance it has for its users.

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Paige’s Note:  In her latest “After the Deadline” column, play chronicler extraordinaire Susan Solomon talks about one of everyone’s favorite playmakers:  Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam and the unique patronage that enabled the creation of her recent piece in Rome.   It provides a model that I hope we will see much more of:  significant corporate sponsorship of ambitious, innovative places and pieces for play!

After the Deadline:  An artist designed playground and its unique patron
Susan G. Solomon

Something magical can happen when artists -and here I include painters, sculptors, architects and landscape architects- design public space.  There is a good chance they know how to organize environments and how to make them both comfortable and stimulating for the people who will be using them: they understand the complexity of materials and know how to exploit those for a range of experiences; they frequently can do more with less money.  For public playgrounds, artists may have the insight and interest to listen to clients, especially children, and translate their unarticulated dreams into reality.

A daunting glitch is how to secure funding for these unusual designs or identify donors who seek extraordinary projects.

Recently, a committed institutional patron and a superb textile artist united forces to create an outstanding play piece in Rome.  It’s an interesting marriage that could have long-term ramifications for who designs play pieces; where these are sited; and who pays for them.  In this particular case, Enel is the forward thinking patron.  Their name is not widely recognized in America.  They are Italy’s largest public utility.  An energy company that is publically traded and whose stock is largely held by the government. Enel is effectively a public private venture.

Enel, which has been a long standing patron of the arts and even a primary sponsor of the art world’s Venice Biennale, began in 2007 to commission unique works for public areas.  Most have been in Rome.  These were site-specific pieces, meant to promote conversation about renewable and sustainable energy.  In 2010, Enel altered the donation program by establishing the Enel Contemporanea Award.   The award sponsors a yearly invited international competition and a distinguished jury selects the winner.  The resulting commissioned work is then displayed for at least a year before Enel retains or donates it.  Carsten Höller won in 2011; his Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO).  This dynamic piece- where visitors could hop on and off carousels that rotated in opposite directions- resided in an entry floor gallery where anyone could come without an admission charge. The 2012 winner was Mike and Doug Starn; their Big Bambu, a 75-foot high construction, invited visitors to climb it at MACRO’s auxiliary site in the former abattoir (now art space) of the city.  While Enel wants their prize theme to be the about the intersection of energy and contemporary art, the successful works have been especially whimsical and playful.

Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam won the Enel honor in 2013 and continued the spirited interactive tradition. The work of this Japanese Canadian fiber artist is well known to readers of this blog. Her wining piece, Harmonic Motion, was displayed at the main MACRO in December 2013. It should have come down a year later but its huge popularity resulted in its stay being extended.  MacAdam’s piece (created with her husband Charles MacAdam and structural engineer Norihide Imagawa) was suspended from the walls of a partially covered courtyard.  It, too, was at street level and without charge.

MacAdam used brightly colored and hand dyed crocheted nets, which she calls  “air pocket”, in her eye-popping Harmonic Motion. It expands some of the inquiries that are found in the somewhat smaller piece she did at the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan: how do we “wear” air that has been fashioned by manipulating linear strings into three dimensional volumes?  In order to let visitors fully explore her concerns, she devised small openings that participants can crawl into; they have choices and have to plan how to navigate their bodies through crocheted tubes; eventually they reach a wide flat crocheted plane where they can run, bounce, and decide whether they want to climb higher along the sides.

The Rome piece is set apart from the Hakone one because anybody can enter, climb, and eventually jump on it. In contrast, the piece in Hakone is for children under 12 years old.  The differing ages at the Rome installation means that older folks have to be careful of younger ones and vice versa.  It also gives teens, who are tough to attract to playgrounds, a venue where they can challenge themselves and each other.  Their delight is evident in the amount of shouting and squealing that ensues.  The courtyard actually amplifies the dim so that all visitors are surrounded by the gleeful howling of excited kids.

MacAdam’s creation is an ideal playground. It enhances its context and fits effortlessly with it.  It is accessible to any age; there is nearby seating for adults who want only to enjoy the piece or the beauty of a courtyard where one end reveals an opening to the sky.  Participants have to take cautious risks and plan carefully how to make their way through this art object.  There is a great deal of camaraderie and joy when they succeed.  Even more importantly, it shows that a legitimate patron, a well-respected museum, and a famous artist could work together for a unique piece that encourages everyone to participate in a challenging, variable (and fun) experience.

We, in America, have generous corporations who often support art projects. We have some fantastic foundations that have been kind and creative in how they approach playgrounds.   We lack, however, a consistent patron who sponsors a yearly event that increasingly defines where art and play can cooperate and then makes sure that the best example materializes.  Let’s hope that some entity- a corporate or private one- will not only pick up the slack but also do it in a way that is deferential to the creative processes of artists and the exploring capabilities of young and older children.

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Discovery within playscapes can happen on multiple levels – from the micro-scale sensory experience or observation of the natural world to a macro-scale discovery of the community context or larger landscape. Ripple Effect is a group of educators, designers and water experts currently developing a model water literacy playscape the impact of which will radiate out across these multiple scales.

The project started with a teacher at the KIPP Central City Primary School (KCCP) in New Orleans, LA who created her own curriculum to teach her first grade students about water in their environment. Over the course of a year the curriculum grew into a larger multi-disciplinary program that now includes students, faculty, administration and greater community.

Ripple Effect and the KCCP school community are now creating a model water literacy playscape that promises to have significant impact on school community and greater New Orleans landscape. There are currently few provisions for play or interaction with nature in the KCCP courtyard. The surface is mostly asphalt and compacted earth where water pools after rain. Ripple Effect and KCCP have worked together to re-envision the space as a place where students can play and experience and observe a new model for water in landscape. Students from every grade level have been engaged in the project from site analysis to planning and design. The design is not yet finalized but the new courtyard will include an elevated play mound and recessed rain garden, outdoor gathering spaces and a special tree (sited by kindergarteners) for younger grades to read under.

Ripple Effect has launched a kickstarter campaign to make the model water literacy playscape a reality. Check out their website and get involved by contributing to their campaign any amount you can. They have set an ambitious fundraising goal of $65,000 to match the $70,000 raised with seed funding from the school community, foundation grants, and over 150 private donations. If the project is funded and built it will become a model for other schools in New Orleans and Playscapes will bring you the inside scoop on the design and construction process.

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There *once* was a decommissioned cable car for kids to play on at Golden Gate Park.  And I wish there still was!  “Real stuff”–train engines, fighter jets, and fire trucks–once provided imaginative play opportunities as well as local life context to playgrounds.  There’s no reason permanently parked items such as these can’t still be used in play spaces…it’s just fallen out of fashion and the grown-ups have forgotten how much fun it was.   Any ‘real stuff’ in the vintage playgrounds of your memories? [images from the san francisco public library, found via sanfranciscodays.  Unsure of the dates, but judging by the clothes and the Big Wheel you can see in the foreground of the second image, perhaps it was there from the 1950s to the 1970s.  If you know, please get in touch!]

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As the heart of the world turns toward Nepal, I am reminded of its beautiful tradition of communal swings–constructed to celebrate the festival of Daishan in September-October.  Bent bamboo and coconut ropes make for a uniquely graceful swingset, and the goal of the suspended swing, which sometimes dangles from a height of 20 feet, is to swing as high as possible.   Tradition says that it will make you forget your troubles, and may even take you to heaven.   May there be many Daishan ‘pings’ this year.

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Start your Monday off happy with this lovely video of the kids at OBS woutertje Pieterse in Leiden, Netherlands using their natural playground, designed by Suzanne van Ginneken!  

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Okay, so the architects who designed this beauty in Hamakita, Japan–the firm Suppose Design Co–call it “Forest Loops”, not spaghetti.  Regardless, I love their addition of nets at the base to make what would in any case be a very ‘play-ful‘ design truly ‘play-able’; a technique that would suit many types of installations.   The looping structure also reminds me of Pablo Reinoso’s beautiful ‘spaghetti benches‘.

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I first came across this structure when visiting the Israel Museum a number of months ago. Construction had yet to be completed; perhaps this is the best time to assess a structure, since one can see the bare structure and its workings. The simple yet sophisticated construction embodies what is sometimes lacking in architecture, namely subtlety.Its  finesse in detailing, craftsmanship and professionalism are apparent in what has been described by the creators as “micro- architecture”.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

The two architects Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman have managed to bring Israel playscape design to a new level. Although they are quite modest in describing it as such, this area in the museum seems to have been utterly rejuvenated and transformed.  I remember it as having been a rather sad, dark space, having spent many years at the museum as a child. The area where the structure was erected used to include a simple sandbox with a statue situated within it. The sandbox was framed by a concrete bench and surrounded by a number of other concrete benches.

Study model.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

In a comprehensive and intriguing talk given by the designers at the Bezalel School of Architecture the two architects described the entire process of design and construction.  Their first challenge was the museum site itself.  The museum has a very specific architectural and spatial character, situated on a prominent hillside within the city.  It was designed by one of Israel’s most regarded architects Alfred Mansfeld, and recently renovated by Efrat-Kowalsky Architects. This challenge meant that the designers had to present a proposal which would compliment and improve the space, without competing with it’s particular character. “No concrete” they were told,  “There is enough concrete here.” (paraphrase).

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

The area in which the structure was to be created is the entrance to the Youth Wing of the museum and serves as a square in which groups congregate to start their museum tours.  The Director of the Youth Wing, Tali Gavish, described this area to me as an intermediate space in which families, children, parents, the elderly and people of various abilities pause, relax and casually interact.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

In the centre of the proposed construction area stands a sole tree. This presented the almost symbolic challenge that faces every designer; how to incorporate the living organism into the design.  The designers decided to frame the tree in a manner not dissimilar to Lacaton & Vasals 1998 project designed in Cap Ferret, France. The framing of the tree – creating a child’s lookout, and ultimately the “framing” of every tour that embarks from this point makes this a vital, dynamic locus within the museum complex.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

Various sketches were submitted by the architects even after they were awarded the commission. The process of selection of design, experimentation and development seemed to continue from conception to inauguration. They had only one year to create the space.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

The designers describe how they wanted to create a feeling of detachment from the ground and to lift the structure into the realm of imagination; providing a sense of a proverbial treehouse. The concepts of “up” and “down”, “inner” and “outer” views, places and destinations were central to their design.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

At some point in the design process the two realized that they were dealing with “giant furniture” rather than “micro-architecture”, and that the language and the rhythm of the structure should take its vocabulary more from the tradition of furniture design than from architecture. The detailing had to be executed with micro-precision, also due to the fact that that Standards Institution of Israel scrutinized the design and construction down to every nut and bolt. This attention to detail proved to be important and useful, as they found that they were creating a space for the proportions of a child. We know from the writings of Richard Dattner that thinking of the proportions of both parents and children, creates spaces that are unique and challenging to children. The entire structure was created by a series of wooden joints, hiding the structural rafters in a way that makes the structure both visible and integral to the entire design. A type of an honest modernist gesture, clear to all that use it.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

When construction was almost complete the official from the Standards Institution of Israel insisted that a net be placed around the tree (“because apparently in playgrounds children are not allowed to come in physical contact with real trees”), but this too meshed into the design. So the result is a complete sinuous form.

Cleverly lit, the structure becomes a sculptural element during the evening, transforming itself into an object of art which enables this space to become a nocturnal vision. The benches that compliment the structure surround the tree house.  Some of these can be shifted in order to create fora for those preparing to embark on tours of the museum.

Photograph by Amit Geron. Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

The undulating ground seemed to pose a special challenge for the regulatory authorities, but the designers decided to insist on remaining faithful, as much as they could, to the original design. Finally everyone was satisfied and the structure was inaugurated.

Photography by Amit Geron.
Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

We have here an example of how beauty –  a much feared word in the world of architectural writing – can be embedded in a play space.  It is true that this place is situated within a museum and is not a public park in the same way that a neighborhood park might be, but the construction of this piece possibly heralds a new or renewed age in which we create places of beauty in our ludic environments.

Photography by Amit Geron. Image courtesy of Deborah Warschawski and Ifat Finkelman architects

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In recent years, the interest of ethnography in Poland has grown rapidly. Folk motifs appear in industrial design, graphics and even in architecture. In the year 2010 the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków organized Etnodizajn Festival. One of the highlights was an outdoor exhibition on the Wolnica square „Wolnica, Freedom, Imagination”. One of the elements of the exhibition was a temporary natural playground by pracownia k.

Created space was a metaphor for a return to nature and unfettered, children’s creativity. “Playing Field” refers to the fields of cereals, as well as toys made by rural children, which based on the available materials. Wicker sticks were used to construct huts or played role of horses. Pavement was covered with natural materials, such as various types of sand, soil, bark. Children formed sand castles, drew sand patterns, strolled along “path of bare feet”. The braided sticks referred to the ears of grain, the wicker seat resembled straw. The most important thing is that each element can be used in several ways. Patchwork game boards could become a roof or wall of a house, a tepee cover or a curtain in the theater of dolls, clay mouse – pawns or figures to play.

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On July 18 The Lawn on D, Boston’s new creative event space will host PLAY-DAY. Taking it’s cue from the tremendous popularity of the Lawn’s “Swing Time”, this one-day event will feature innovative play installations, games, costumed characters and artworks designed to encourage & invigorate play for kids, adults and everyone in-between.  Submissions for projects from $250 to $2,500 to playdayboston@gmail.com by FRIDAY MAY 29! 

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Zip lines, aka flying foxes, are sadly absent from most US playgrounds due to–you guessed it–overblown liability fears.  So make one in your backyard!   Follow the instructions by I Like to Make Stuff via Instructables.

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Many of the post-war modernist housing developments in the UK installed concrete playgrounds to match their similarly sparse exteriors.  They were rarely successful as spaces, and most are now lost,  but they did provide a new aesthetic and–most importantly–promoted the idea that play was worthy of serious architectural attention, and that playgrounds could be important design elements in their own right.  This image, from Historic England,  was next to Bedford House, near Brockwell Park.  Exact and designer unknown…get in touch if you have it!

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Another lovely from English Heritage…this is a 1970s construct in the courtyard of London flats designed by the architects Andrews Sherlock and Partners.  It’s the Aldo van Eyck’s jumping stones writ large!  

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Thanks to those of you who have gotten in touch so far and we look forward to hearing from more of you with proposals for Boston’s Play-Day, June 18 at the The Lawn on D! Requirements are fairly loose so be as creative as you would like with innovative, imaginative structures and games that invite play for kids and adults, easily installed and removed.   There’s no official RFP form, just send your ideas, a few details about pricing (construction budget is $250-$2500) and perhaps a link to other work you’ve done to playdayboston@gmail.com by May 29!

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The BOULEvard ball, developed by studio ON/OFF for last fall’s Kanal Playground Festival in Brussels,  was based on the “tensegrity” principles of Buckminster Fuller.  It uses compression to create a  large 4m tall boulder, made of plumbing pipes, that is tough enough to roll through the city! 

Through a series of workshops with locals, the ball was community-assembled  then dispatched on an urban expedition through the canal area of Brussels.  Its mission was to create play in unexpected places, and it attracted both curiosity and participation as it rolled past resident’s windows.  

I love their mission statement:  “Do-It-Yourself doesn’t have to be small, the city is a playground for
experiments just as much as a shed filled with half-fixed furniture and modified shelves.The BOULEvard ball shows that DIY can also be collective, and its results can be shared in common.”

BOULEvard from Andrew Bateman on Vimeo.

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Because I’m thinking about temporary play structures alot at the moment (Boston PlayDay!  Send in your ideas!)  here are two more unique woven structures from the OGE Creative Group.    The “Red Blob”  honors the skill and labor of their knitting grandmothers, and  “Aura” is woven of glow sticks for a uniquely self-lit structure.   The genius of pop-up and temporary inventions of all sorts is that they can make us think differently about how we see and use the space around us.  These both make me think about ways to energize too-static playground spaces with temporary interventions.  What would the playground nearest you look like with some knit bombing, or glow-stick weaving?  How could you use that to draw community to, and build community around, your play space?

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Paige’s Note:  One of the problems in discussions of playground safety and risk is the poor quality of playground injury statistics.  The word “injury” can cover many things, from minor cuts and scrapes to broken limbs.  This makes the number *appear* high, an easy shrill headline for media outlets who have little interest in actually understanding the statistics.  There is a similar problem with liability and insurance discussions.  What does the headline “City shells out $20M over kids’ playground injuries” actually mean?  Should we be alarmed?  Is is high or low, good or bad?  Fortunately, we have Susan Solomon to explain!

Good News: A Report on a Report: Susan G. Solomon

Is the glass half empty or half full?  I was struck by that eternal question when I read the ClaimStat Alert report that the New York City Comptroller Office issued in March. The subtitle, “Protecting Kids on NYC Playgrounds,” does not immediately explain that this is a compilation of personal injury claims brought against the city during the period 2005 to 2014. It covers all of NYC’s almost 1000 playgrounds.The New York Post immediately made a half empty assessment in its coverage of the release of the report. Their headline screamed “City shells out $20M over kids’ playground injuries.”

I suggest that there can be a totally different conclusion from the same data, effectively the half full approach.  I believe that this is a remarkable document, one that dispels many concerns about liability held by those who commission or design playgrounds. It also shows the shallowness of arguments that urge tort reform as a prerequisite for flourishing of innovative playground design.

Before we look at the information in the report it is critical to note that it comes from the city comptroller. It seems obvious that that office would know where injuries occur and how much is paid for settlement or a   judgment.  For those of us who have long sought this evidence from parks departments  (and have often felt that we were being stonewalled), this report makes clear that some of us were looking in the wrong place. We now have a new focus of where to locate data (hiding in plain sight?), something I intend to pursue from other major (and even smaller) American cities although New York appears to be the first to collect and disseminate this information so systematically.

It is heartening that the claims were spread throughout the city. No playground had more than 7 claims in the almost decade long period under review. Fifteen playgrounds had between 4 and 7 claims.  The rest had only 1 or 2 actions.   We might anticipate, for instance, that two newer and “risky” parks might have quickly popped up on the claims list.  We might expect Tear Drop Park with its high slide and craggy boulders to be cited; or we might think the slippery rocks at WaterLab in Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 would have resulted in quite a few suits.  Neither of these venues is even on the list.  Their respective surrounding parks, Battery Park and Brooklyn Bridge respectively, have a single claim each.

A closer look reveals there were 577 claims for the entire nine years span.  Compare that to possible number of users: If only 20 kids came to each playground each day that would be over 7 million kid visits per year!!  The report does make a significant point in indicating there has been a 7 percent drop in NYC residents under 18 years old (2005 to 2013) at the same time that the annual number of claims has gone from a low point of 45 (2005) to a higher figure of 69 in 2014.  This is a 50% increase and  statistically there are more claims and less children. But given the number of users, this is a tiny per capita shift.  On one hand, we can say that the number of claims has “skyrocketed” but, on the other hand, we have to recognize that the real number is still extremely small.

The number $20 million seems like- and certainly is- a large amount of cash.  It, too, needs a context.  In one year alone (2012), the city paid out $485.9 million for all of the  “personal injury and property damage tort settlement and judgments” against it.  When it comes to the specifics in the playground ClaimStat information, it appears that the city (which is self-insured, like many large municipalities) settled almost all (530) of the claims.  Some of these were holdovers from the 1990s and some that were not settled between 2005 and 2014 will show up in later reviews.  For the settled cases, the overall average settlement was $38,952, a number that was skewed by a single settlement of $3.5 million; that settlement pertained to a 1999 claim by a 19 year old who was swinging and hit her head on a fence. The fall zone would have been sufficient for a younger child but did not account for young adults. Without that settlement, the average payout would have been about $30,000.  That is not a small sum but it is also not an insurance busting one.  Individual practitioners can take comfort that their own insurance would have covered similar claims and that tort “caps” or other reforms would not be necessary for them to be fully covered.

Overwhelmingly, most of the playground injuries resulted from gaps in maintenance, not from the design or implementation of equipment. Almost 40% of all claims were for “missing/defective matting” surfaces under equipment; “cracked or broken surfaces”; and “improper maintenance”.  The ClaimStat Alert report does not detail specific injuries but it seems likely that most were broken arms and legs when we look how the Comptroller arrived at several recommendations.  Taking their lead from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the Comptroller’s Office suggests that “we can reduce the likelihood of injuries and reduce liability to the taxpayer” if we use “softer surfaces- such as mulch, shredded tires, or sand.”  These recommendations appear to validate Prof. David Ball’s extensive research that points to rubber safety surfacing as the likely culprit in broken limbs of the upper body.

The NYC ClaimStat document gives us hope that municipalities are not suffering from excessive litigation or from onerous financial burdens.  Let’s hope that other cities will come forth and present their own data.  Evidence so far has been spotty.  For example, Reporter Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times (February 1, 2014) recently asked his city for a listing of all claims against the city since 2007.  He found that “a few of the cases involve potholes or crumbling playgrounds” but the dominant claims were for injuries from broken pavements (and don’t we think no one walks in LA?).   If we begin to see similar investigations of other large cities- or better yet, if cities reveal their data forthrightly- then we will know for sure if the positive implications of the New York ClaimStat report are typical and instructive for other large urban areas.

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The original „Indian Village” was designed by architect Jacek Krenz and sculptor Maja Kuczyńska in the 1970s. Artists belonged to the so-called Kadyny Group and worked on the many projects for blocks of flats in the Tricity. The playground was made by a group of prisoners, as part of rehabilitation activities. The village did not survive to our times.

See also: Playgrounds of Jacek Krenz, Poland, 1970s

In 2012, during the festival Streetwaves, playground was rebuilt. The authors of the new version are the designers of the group Tabanda. On the basis of a few pictures and memories of residents of the estate they have created a creative reconstruction of the village. Because of the low budget the playground was only a temporary installation.

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For #TBT I was excited to learn that the midcentury “Indian Playground” constructed for a Polish high-rise housing estate was rebuilt for a design festival from remaining photographs and resident’s memories.  Only temporary alas, but it is wonderful to think of this lost playground being found again.  I’d love to see more festival re-creations of vintage play elements and sites!  Get the entire story from Playscapes’ correspondent in Poland, Anna Komorowska.

The post #TBT Recreating a vintage Polish Playground appeared first on Playscapes.

I never tire of the work of Spanish collective Basurama, whose practice “revolves around the reflection of trash, waste and reuse in all its formats and possible meanings”. In addition to the public space installations previously featured here at Playscapes (see Ghost Train Park, the Park for Playing and Thinking, and Equipamentos Extraordinarios), they have also constructed a series of “self-made playgrounds”, reconfiguring whatever materials they find available in the local setting into playful–and visually arresting–designs.   Like TYIN Tegnestue, for example, Basurama distinguishes themselves from other charitable providers by an attention to aesthetics that credits its clients with appreciating both play AND design.

For an orphanage in Addis Abada, Ethiopia, Basurama used discarded scrap metal from old swingsets, cribs and beds to make bright yellow ladders and hexagons and covered them with pallets for climbing.  Note the nice details of a sun shade made from billboard advertisements and the chalkboard backing on the lower hexagons!  In Maputo, Mozambique they enlivened the dusty schoolyard with large geometric pallet-houses and smaller elements community-built from car tires recovered in the surrounding neighborhood. And in Malabo, Equatorial New Guinea they appropriated the streetscape around a spreading mango tree with a temporary playground of more pallets and plastic drink crates to make a climbable, sittable, suspended garden.

These ideas aren’t just for the developing world!  We could do a whole lot more repurposing and reusing on ‘first-world’ playgrounds, too. Let Basumrama inspire you.

The post Self-Made Playgrounds from Recycled Materials, Basurama appeared first on Playscapes.