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The Overprotected Kid, Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic
See also Hanna Rosin’s piece on parental fear in the Atlantic, which delves into the origins of playground litigation in the US (though I still blame Kramer vs. Kramer). Glad to see misgivings about...
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Hexapod, Found!
One of the pieces Garret Eckbo installed in that first ‘playscape’ was the Hexapod, designed by Robert Winston for Creative Playthings. It’s original prototype has been found at Jessica Smith’s Regla...
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Aldo van Eyck’s Playground Plans
Did you know Aldo van Eyck used children’s crayons to color in his playground plans? So nice. This is the design of the Weesperzijde playground, Amsterdam-Oost, 1953-1954. From Aldo Van Eyck: the...
View ArticlePlayscapes Forum, redux!
There’s a new way to interact with Playscapes…over on Facebook Sarah has started a new Playscapes open group page for dialog about design, diy and other topics! This is to replace the forum that was...
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Radio Boston, Natural Playgrounds
Very happy to be on RadioBoston yesterday with Ruth Graham to discuss natural playgrounds…you can listen here! The post Radio Boston, Natural Playgrounds appeared first on Playscapes. Related posts:...
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Mountain Gym, Makoto Tanijiri, Tokyo, 2012
Variations of the traditional gridded playground climber are springing up everywhere…this is the Mountain Gym by Makoto Tanijiri as constructed for Design Touch Tokyo in 2012. The 5 meter high, 10...
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The Real Estate, Al/Arch, Bat-Yam Israel, 2012
The ‘vertical public park’ designed by Al/Arch for the dense urban area of Bat-Yam Israel transformed one of those strange edge areas left by thoughtless city planners; in this case an awkward void...
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Playground History at the Design Museum Holon, April 16 – June 07, 2014
Design Museum Holon will be featuring an exhibit on Playgrounds in Israel past and present until June 7. ““In the Upper Gallery we seek to reawaken in visitors the question concerning the fate of...
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Cherry Blossom Treehouse, Terunobu Fujimori, Kiyoharu Shirakaba Museum,...
No one does treehouses like the Japanese…this teahouse by Terunobu Fujimori for the Kiyoharu Shirakaba Museum in Hokuto was constructed specifically for viewing the cherry blossoms. Fujimori says...
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Playable Library Roof, John Lin and Olivier Ottevaere, Shuanghe Village,...
I’m loving the trend for playful libraries…this ‘roof as playscape’ is a more rustic (and less expensive) version of the Maritime Youth house roof from 2004. It was installed in a village in Yunnan...
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Tiong Bahru Park Adventure Playground, Singapore
I’ve talked before on the blog about how a risky narrative can be used to provide a ‘feeling’ of danger on a playground that is still quite safe, a device used very effectively in Monstrum’s...
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Singapore’s Vintage Mosaic Playgrounds
Throwback Thursday…I’ve featured the vintage mosaic playgrounds of Singapore before and the most comprehensive archive of these great spaces is at the rememberingsingapore blog, if you haven’t visited...
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Battleship Playground, Sembawang Park, Singapore, 2013
More from Singapore…ships, like trains, can be overdone on the playground but the grand scale of this one, plus its modern slatted construction, make it exceptional! Appropriately, the playground...
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Bishan Park Playscape, Atelier Dreiseitl, Singapore, 2012
The restructuring of Singapore’s massive Bishan Park in 2012 included several dedicated play spaces, each nice in their own way: a large sand pit with a playable swiss cheese wall as backdrop to...
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Book Giveaway! Once Upon a Playground by Brenda Biondo
I was pleased to provide a back cover endorsement (first time I’ve gotten to do that!) for Brenda Biondo’s beautiful new book Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds,...
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Playgrounds “Not Available on the App Store”, 2014
Three Hyper Island students (Caio Andrade, Rafael Ochoa, and Linn Livijn Wexell) dreamed up the idea of making “Not Available on the App Store” stickers as a friendly reminder to get kids away from the...
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1950s Vintage Havana, Cuba Playground
For throwback Thursday, images of a delightful vintage playground in Havana, Cuba; left, like the city’s automobiles, virtually unchanged since the 1950s. May it remain a time capsule of play. P.S....
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Ashland, Massachusetts Stone Park Vintage Playground, 1984
And the winner is…Rich! Get in touch with me arcady at cox dot net with your address and I’ll send your book right out! The picture is of a great climbing frame at Ashland’s Stone Park, c. 1984, by...
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Urban Playground Team in residence in Baltimore, 2014
Love this overlap between performance and play: The Urban Playground Team from the UK will invite young people to play Baltimore’s Penn Station Plaza through a residency combining elements of...
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Playgrounds: Reinventing the square, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid Spain, April...
I think we can definitely call a trend on museums hosting exhibitions about playgrounds: Denmark, Holon, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh and of course MoMA (though theirs was about children’s design...
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