One of the really interesting things to me about the contributions of Aldo van Eyck and Theodor Sørensen is that they were quite different responses…but to the same type of site, the vacant and broken spaces of a city.
Aldo’s approach was fundamentally artistic: refined compositions with strong geometries, sculpted forms, and incredibly thoughtful layouts. He chose to intervene–strongly–at these sites, and some of the most compelling images of his work are the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots that show order arising out of chaos. Too much intervention, some play theorists might argue. But using that same architectonic model, Aldo was able to transform other neglected parts of the city as well; even carving out space for play out of the city streets of Amsterdam. And when was the last time you heard of space for cars being eliminated in favor of space for play?
Theodor chose to intervene only lightly in the rubble-strewn lots of Denmark, and I wonder how much this was because he was a student of landscape, while van Eyck was a student of architecture. Each designer chose, in a way, to follow their own biases and interests as they made space for play, and that is as it should be. Theodor’s choices emphasized the inherent adventure of ‘junk’, and celebrated the chaos of self-construction–even of DEstruction–as acts of the child’s autonomy. But Theodor’s ‘junk’ playground (the original name, unappealing to some, was changed to the ‘adventure’ playground) was not as versatile within the city space as Aldo’s ‘cleaner’ artistic constructions.
They each have their advantages, and all of the great playgrounds since stem from these two responses. (Excepting equipment, whose ancestry is the gymnasium, and natural playgrounds, which in spite of the present scrum of people trying to promote themselves as the originators of nature play, actually arose in the social concerns of the 19teens and 20s, and have been present in play design ever since.)
I’m often asked what gets a playscape featured on this blog. Ultimately, it must have, for me, something of artistry and something of adventure. Most manufactured playgrounds fail at both: they are too ‘safe’ to be adventurous, and too banal to be artistic. And so you won’t see them here. I will forgive a highly artistic work for being only lightly adventurous, and a highly adventurous space for lacking some artistry, though the best playgrounds are a true synthesis of both, and the best playground designers are reaching out for both in their work. Aldo and Theodor, artistry and adventure.
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