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Battle for the Builder: the Nørrebro Playground Riot, Copenhagen, 1980
In 1980 an adventure playground (Byggelegeplads, ‘Builder’) was demolished under police projection in the densely populated ’Black Square’ of Nørrebro in Copenhagen. The residents didn’t let it go...
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Play in Museums – the Playground Project at the Carnegie Museum of Art,...
Hello again! I’ve been away at a conference on science and romantic-era literature…expected I could keep posting whilst I was away but my head was too full of Shelley and Coleridge. But the...
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Play in Museums – Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam at The Children’s Museum of...
At long, long last there is a crocheted playground by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam in the United States! The Kaleidoscape opens TODAY, June 13, at the Children’s Museum in Winston-Salem North Carolina....
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Play in Museums – Design for the Modern Child at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Thanks to reader Anna for alerting me to two playful exhibits at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Design for the Modern Child runs May 25 - October 14, 2013 and features mostly toy objects, but also...
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Battery Park Playscape, Asplan Viak, Trondheim Norway,
Back when I posted about the idea of merging path and playground, reader Mari sent me a link to the ‘Battery Park’ (Ladeparken or Sirkusparken) by Asplan Viak which combines a wide promenade and a...
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Play Notes for your June 21, 2013 weekend
To cool you down on this longest day of summer…designer Svend Stovlbek sent me the above photo of his lovely snowbound playscape, installed in a small village in the north-north of Norway - Latitude:...
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Play in Museums: John Bridgeman and Simon and Tom Bloor at Leamington Spa Art...
Leamington Spa’s Design for Pleasure exhibition is the first retrospective of the work of British artist John Bridgeman (1916-2004) whose three-dimensional work included “gigantic ‘Play Sculptures’...
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Barefoot Parks and Sensation Paths
Continuing my musings on this idea of play-as-path and path-as-play…there is no better example of this in the ‘natural play’ arena than the barefoot park. Having led the way in the development of the...
View ArticleThe Barefoot walk at Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
When the barefoot walk at the Trentham estate in Staffordshire was installed in 2008 it was England’s first and only, and its highlight was then and is now a nearly knee-high mud bath–carefully sifted...
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Tactile Paths from New Zealand
Thanks to reader Lynn for letting me know that in New Zealand they refer to barefoot paths as ‘tactile paths’ or simply textured paths, and for sending these examples from Henley Kindergarten, Nelson ,...
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Play-Notes for your July 5, 2013 weekend
So the big news this weekend is that the Playscapes Correspondents are finally up and posting, huzzah! A big welcome to friends who have posted so far: Amber in Japan, Ana in Brazil, Eloise in France,...
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Have you seen Traveling Rings?
“Traveling Rings are a special type of fitness equipment which normally have 8-10 steel rings suspended by chains, each of which is linked to a steel support or beam. One can “travel” from one ring to...
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Swinging for Health in the 18th Century
Thinking about A.A. Alexander’s ‘Healthful Exercises for Girls‘ that recommended the traveling rings in 1902 reminds me of the health-history of swings…long before they were associated with the...
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Playscapes from our Correspondents
I want to highlight some of the great playscapes being posted by our correspondents! More great playgrounds in a week than I could possibly cover in months *sigh*, I’m loving the additional content!...
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Taylor Cullity Lethlean Playgrounds
The Australian firm of Taylor Cullity Lethlean is getting alot of internet attention for their new ‘Pod Playground’ at the National Arboretum in Canberra. Starting with the obvious idea of seeds,...
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Verner Panton, Wohnskulptur, 1972
You say ‘lounge furniture’, I say ‘playground’. Indoor, padded. c. 1972 by Verner Panton, now residing at the Pompidou where, alas, climbing on the artwork is not allowed. [image by Tineke Franssen,...
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Playground DIY – Illuminated Climbing Holds
Via instructables, an interesting project for using LEDs to illuminate the climbing holds that are a standard feature of backyard playsets…connected to a controller so that they can be selectively lit...
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Lafayette Park Playground, Miller Company Landscape Architects, San Francisco...
It starts with a hill (all good playscapes do): two imposing rock mountains connected by a footbridge over a ‘gorge’ that allows for great over-under play. The mountain-boulders are arranged in...
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Pocket Playscape for Supervised Visits, EarthArtist, Guelph Canada, 2012
Another one of the very early features on Playscapes–back when a google search for ‘natural playgrounds’ turned up about three companies (how things have changed)–was EarthArtist. When I was in...
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Swings and Hammocks for Public Spaces
The ”Off-Ground“ project by Amsterdam-based designers Jair Straschnow and Gitte Nygaard seeks to scale up play elements so that they can be used as alternative public seating. Their design asks ‘why...
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