Street and city
Playground
neighborhood park school plaza gated community hospital
A space with structures for climbing, sliding, swinging and playing with sand or water, designed for children.
What it solves
It gives girls and boys a nearby place to move, test their limits and meet others. In the tropics it needs shade from trees or roofs so the play equipment does not burn.
Today
Place them in view of benches and houses, with shade, a soft surface under the equipment and elements that invite invention, such as sand, water, logs and changes in level.
Common mistake
Putting metal play equipment in full sun on hard concrete and fencing it off far from the life of the neighborhood.
Tomorrow
Play equipment can be made with local timber, reclaimed materials and landforms instead of catalog pieces. Schoolyards and streets closed for a few hours can be opened as play spaces for the whole neighborhood.
Fact The free zone around each fixed piece of equipment should extend at least 1.8 m in all directions, with a surface that cushions falls.
Where it comes from
- 1Industrial public parks Manchester and Salford, United Kingdom, 1846
Three parks opened that year included the first purpose-built public play spaces. - 2Danish adventure playground Emdrup, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1943
Based on an idea from 1931, the first playground opened where children build and transform with loose materials. - 3Neighborhood play squares Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1947 to 1978
About 700 small playgrounds were built on vacant lots, without fences, with sandpits, low walls and simple bars a few steps from the houses.
Masters
- Aldo van Eyck Amsterdam playgrounds, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1947
Between 1947 and 1978 he designed hundreds of small unfenced playgrounds on vacant lots next to the houses, with sandpits, low walls, stepping stones and simple bars. He teaches that playing near the door and in view of the neighbors is worth more than a complicated apparatus. - Isamu Noguchi Playscapes, Atlanta, United States, 1976
He turned play equipment into sculptures of simple forms and colors that children interpret in their own way. He shows that open-ended play invites more invention than equipment that dictates how to use it.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Street and city
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.