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How Strange are our Dangers? How Dangerous are Strangers?
Editor’s Note: I’m pleased to welcome play historian and expert Susan Solomon’s second column here at Playscapes. In it, she challenges our overblown ‘fear of strangers’, and the limitations that...
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#PlaySculptureSaturday: Midcentury Concrete Slides, University of Phillipines
Unattributed, mysterious sculpture at the University of the Phillipines in Diliman. Beautiful photography by Dan Matutina, via flickr in the first photograph; the second, by city tales, shows that...
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Playful Playground Fence, Superblue, Deptford Park, London, 2013
I always enjoy the work of London-based Superblue Design….here a very playful fence that morphs into seating and a gate for Deptford Park in London. The post Playful Playground Fence, Superblue,...
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Nancy Rubins’ Exploding Playground Parts, 2013
Sculptor Nancy Rubins arranges discarded playground equipment into exploding forms. She’s currently working in post-war metal pieces, like spring riders…I’d love to see this idea expanded into the...
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#PlaySculptureSaturday: Stone Cars and Trucks
It’s quite common to see cars and trucks or even tractors carved out of wood on the playground, but it stopped me in my tracks to see these stacked stone constructions! I think kids would really enjoy...
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This is not a playground, just pictures
Hi Play-scapes readers ! As beginning of year has been quite tough here in France, here is an “easy” post (few English, few thinking). I’ve been collecting pictures of my children using “alternative...
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Ice Labyrinth at The Lawn on D, Boston, 2015
The Lawn on D has done it again, this time with 300 blocks of ice that form a walk-through maze. This experimental public space was the home of Swing Time and it’s the most exciting thing happening in...
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First Night Boston 2015
“Why is this SO FUN?” was a common question shouted on Boston Common on New Year’s Eve. The cause of the fun was a bunch of giant tetherballs containing rubber toys that lit up when agitated. “Why are...
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Article 0
Apologies for the slowdown in posting while I try to change the world with nanotechnology. Seriously great things in the lab at the moment, but I’ll be back with more playgrounds (and my backlog of...
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“Playgrounds that rip up the safety rules” by Tim Gill
Editors Note: With this post, I’m pleased to welcome Tim Gill to Playscapes! Tim is one of the UK’s leading thinkers on childhood. For over 15 years his writing, research, consultancy projects and...
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Octagon Shelter/Playhouse, Laura Morotta, Ontario, 2014
Thanks to artist Laura Morotta for submitting her octagon shelter/playhouse, “a simple wooden and steel structure that makes use of shifting panels and components to allow the viewer to activate its...
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Mixer – a common work of seniors and youth
The playground is the result of the workshops, attended by seniors and young people in Biskupiec (Poland). Participants were asked to design and build play equipment in the local city park. In the...
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Playscapes hits 3,000,000!
And while I was hard at work in the lab, at some point the blog quietly ticked over 3,000,000 page views. Wow, thanks! Really, I am humbled by the trust you’ve placed in me the last seven years to...
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#PlaySculptureSaturday Motu Viget Swing, Grand Rapids, MI, Mark di Suvero, 1977
“All of us are children at heart—or were children and have forgotten it. The child in us can respond to the piece.” Mark di Suvero, Grand Rapids Press, 1977 Sculptor Mark di Suvero‘s bold, exploding...
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Wet Quintet, Dan Sternof Beyer, Boston, 2011
As Boston approaches eight feet of snow for the season and wind chills plunge to -30 Fahrenheit, I’m happy to think about dancing barefoot in the Rose Kennedy Greenway’s Rings Fountain. Wet Quintet,...
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Play Inspiration from MUF Architecture, London
I’m always intrigued by the work of MUF Architecture/Art, a rare female-led studio in London..their work is subtle, but always inspires me to new thoughts about play. Look at how their ‘play blanket’...
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#TBT Marilyn Monroe on the Playground, 1955
For #TBT my friend Chris sent me this amazing photo of Marilyn Monroe on a playground merry-go-round, reading Ulysses. I think an entire novel could be written from just those three elements. The...
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Banksy paints a Gaza Playscape, 2015
I did my garden history graduate studies in Bristol, hometown of Banksy, whose latest provocation in Gaza has just magically appeared: the dream of a playscape in a warzone. It reminded me of the...
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More about Playground Ruins
In continuing to think about ruins on playgrounds I came across this delightful example in Kastryčnicki, Svietlahorsk, Belarus, as photographed by Arseny Khakhalin (no info on designer or date; help if...
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ASTM declares grass unsafe for children?
If you’ve visited a playground recently and thought “Whatever happened to the grass?”, you can thank the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), for whom grass does not have appropriate...
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