How to Grow a Playspace

Development and Design

Katherine Masiulanis, Elizabeth Cummins

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138906549
• eBook ISBN: 9781317442219
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

How to Grow a Playspace takes you through a global perspective of the different stages of child development and the environments that engage children in play around the world. From the urbanity of Mumbai; to rainbow nets in Japan; nature play in Denmark; recycling waste in Peru; community building in Uganda; play streets in London; and gardens of peace in Palestine, it proves that no matter where play occurs, it is ubiquitous in its resourcefulness, imagination and effect.

Written by international leaders in the field of play including academics, designers and playworkers, How to Grow A Playspace discusses contemporary issues around children and play, such as risk benefit in play, creativity and technology, insights into children's thinking, social inclusion and what makes a city child-friendly.

With its own 'Potting Shed', this text is also a practical guide to support playspace projects with advice on teams, budgets, community engagement, maintenance and standards. How to Grow a Playspace is a comprehensive 'go-to' guide for anyone interested or involved in children's play and playspaces.

Part I
Ground

An Introduction

Elizabeth Cummins & Katherine Masiulanis

The ground is a place of beginnings. Plant life, which feeds so many other forms of life, must have soil to grow. We build upon the ground, and rely on it for support. The ground is also a place where we can establish deep roots. In the context of this book, and ‘growing a playspace’, the ground is a commitment to recognising the importance of play, and our role in influencing the quality of play. Great thinking is rich soil.

If you are searching for a simple formula for a playspace, you will not find it here. There are no diagrams telling you where to put the swings. What you will find in these pages will open your eyes to the complexity of designing playspaces. In many ways, they are some of the most complex landscape projects undertaken. Designing playspaces requires an understanding not just of aesthetics, materials and construction, but also of children’s changing developmental needs; an ergonomic, social and cultural sensitivity; an assessment of risk and challenge; and an openness to spaces being used in ways beyond their design. A strong understanding of the importance of play, and the reasons behind the need to provide fantastic playspaces, give us the motivation to investigate, research, design and carry through a project which will enrich lives in the same way as any bountiful harvest from the soil.

In our adult world, play is sometimes dismissed. In our serious, goal-driven, time-managed lives, play can seem to be ‘just messing about’, and the real importance of play in developing complete human beings is lost. However, if we want children to know what their bodies can really do; to have strong imaginations and creative minds; and to get along with one another, it is crucial that they are given the opportunity for as much good, fulfilling play as possible.

Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) states:

Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

Adopted by the United Nations in 1989, this convention is remarkable in being the most widely ratified of any human rights treaty in history, with 192 countries signed up as state parties as of 2005. It clearly speaks of strong international support for the right of all children to play.

Knowing that providing valuable environments for play is important for children, we need to examine why this is so. How can we go about this effectively? What exactly makes play valuable for life and a playspace valuable for play?

Play is the opportunity for children and young people to engage in spontaneous activity and exploration, a chance to make friends, discover new places, learn new skills and build a picture of the world. Play, in short, is the opportunity to practise ‘life’ and the playspace a microcosm of the world in which that practice takes place. The form of a playspace may change from country to country, but the objective remains the same. Children, no matter where they live, what abilities they have, what language they speak or the particularities of their culture, will inherently seek opportunities to play, either individually or together.

Play may teach children a scientific concept, help them to make a new friend, encourage them to create something, or build up muscle strength and balance by climbing up high. Play is important as ‘a scaffold for development, a vehicle for increasing neural structures and a means by which all children practice skills they will need later in life’.¹ The neurological importance of play is investigated in later chapters.

It is worth recognising that there is much we can learn from the natural world and what it provides for play. Natural settings ‘provide a variety of loose parts that enable children to shape their environment, developing their creative and constructional, cognitive abilities’.² Allowing children to move and build with real elements like seed pods, flowers, rocks and so on enriches not only the sensory nature of play, but also the precious ability to manipulate the world in ways that may not be available to children as adults.

To provide some context, we will look at the history of play and the rise of the ‘designed’ or ‘created’ playspace from its beginnings in the natural world. This book will seek to examine the full circle of approaches to play within the last 200 years, as styles and thinking about play have changed. This includes the more recent return to ‘nature play’ led in part by greater cultural sensitivity to increasing urbanisation and the fragility of our environment.

It is important to understand that the physical playspace in itself does not entirely hold the key to play. The decks, mounds, rocks, logs, climbing frames, slides, swings, sand, water and plants are merely the physical stage on which the ‘play’ occurs. Just like a theatre set, they support the action, but the story is created by the children themselves. What is critical is how children are able to interact with the playspace, as the freedom to explore and experience challenge adds richness to play. A great playspace will stimulate children’s imaginations and creativity, giving them the gift of a world in which anything can happen. The opportunity to play together with others and make friends is fundamental to social inclusion and self-confidence. This is a crucial factor when designing places for people of all abilities.

Play is ubiquitous, it happens everywhere, though is most likely to be seen in homes, schools or early childhood centres, in local neighbourhoods or public places. It is important to understand that play does not just occur in designated playspaces, nor do designated playspaces provide the only opportunity for valuable play. This book focusses specifically on play that occurs in public or programmed places, as ‘for many children designed environments are their main opportunity for play’.³

So what makes a great playspace?

No doubt there are many answers to this, depending on your perspective.

We feel that a playspace should support children to play at a level and in a way that they feel comfortable. This includes providing safe spaces (in the sense of not being unnecessarily frightening) and developmentally appropriate, and which offer the opportunity for children to stand back and observe the play if they do not wish to directly participate. Practical issues such as shade, shelter and good maintenance are also important in allowing everyone at the playspace to feel comfortable.

That said, there should also be enough complexity, challenge and intrigue to allow children to take risks, learn and become completely involved in their play. A space which is completely ‘safe’ can easily become simply dull. It has been said that the happiest people are those who achieve ‘flow’⁴ – the sense of complete immersion in a task so that time seems irrelevant – and children deeply engrossed in their play certainly achieve flow.

Arguably, a great playspace should also develop some importance to children. Many of these spaces are not designed at all, and often look uninviting to adults. For example, Richard Louv, who coined the term ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ in his book Last Child in the Woods,⁵ talks with nostalgia about his childhood playspaces, which were the fields and wood behind his house in Independence, Missouri. Sometimes these spaces can be a small clearing in a shrubbery, which contains a boulder which makes a perfect seat; or the corner of building with special nooks in the crumbling brickwork. It is not always possible to predict which spaces will appeal, but it is possible to avoid designing a space which is bland and in which there are no surprises. Sometimes playspaces can become important to children because they contain a particularly memorable feature such as intriguing artwork, or because of the community and family activities which happen in that place.

Every playspace is different, and those which respect the nature of their setting have an immediate point of difference. For example, existing trees may be used for shade and to climb, or natural mounds to shape the space. Look at the opportunities for play which already exist on the site and consider building upon those. It has been said that the primary difference between landscape design and architecture is that buildings may sit just as well in many places around the world, but landscape must be designed on its own merits.⁶ Allow the character of the place to colour the design and it cannot help but be special.

Great playspaces also need to consider the hard wear of play. Children use spaces with intensity, and this needs to be considered in the initial design, or the space will not remain a good place to play for very long. Some spaces are designed to have short lives, others to last decades. Either way, the materials and maintenance should be appropriate and planned.

Of course, the most important element in designing a great playspace is that it invites play! They should be attractive and fun, but also make it clear that it is acceptable to ‘mess about’. In many cultures, most spaces are adult-dominated, and children are not allowed to play freely. A place where children are allowed to do what they please – run, shout, move things around, pretend – is precious.

Even when a space has been allowed especially for children, sometimes adult thinking can intrude. Children and adults see the world quite differently and as such understand the value of a playspace quite differently as well.

It has been emphasised that places for children are not the same as children’s places, and that the latter does not always fit with the perspective of planners and other adults who affect children’s physical environments.⁷

This book seeks to understand and explain playspaces as a child might and from there develop an understanding of the opportunities that lie within an ‘affordance’, such as the quality of a surface or the ergonomics of a structure. An ‘affordance’ is an opportunity, and many of these only become apparent when children are let loose, to appropriate their environment and make it become whatever they need to support their play. This is perhaps most evident in school grounds, where every inch is intensively used over a period of years, and a rich diversity of games and legends arise in particular places.

By exploring the details of child development, this book will lead the reader through how these stages have intrinsic links with play, and how they can be supported in a range of different playspaces. Bear in mind that these stages should be seen as a general guide only: every child develops at their own rate, and with interests and skills in different areas. The aim of these sections is to broaden the understanding of what might best support children’s various play needs, including their social development and relationships with their peers and carers. By understanding the usual patterns of development, designers can better accommodate the elements which encourage aspects like growing independence, the need for challenge and the rich, imaginative world of children, as well as the physical needs most commonly catered for in traditional playspace design.

Intended less as a glossy picture book and more as a ‘nuts and bolts’ guide to thinking about playspaces, this book uses the analogy of the plant and its growth cycle to discuss play at different stages of childhood. Practical issues such as planning, developing and constructing a project are explored and real life examples of unique projects from around the world are presented to inspire. Areas of specific interest have been written by leading practitioners and academics in those fields. As there are various schools of thought, you may sometimes find contradictions. This book is not intended as a manifesto: it is a holistic toolkit to arm you with the information you need to form your own opinion.

So how do you go about designing a real playspace?

We recognise that in the real world, inspiration itself is not enough. As a provider of play, whether that be as a manager, designer or educator, responsibility lies with you to ensure that the play you provide is of benefit to children and your community.

Resources, time and space are not infinite, so concentrating your efforts to design and build a space which permits the best quality of play possible is important. Undertaking a playspace project can be a daunting task in itself, so this book explores the principles of preparation and planning for your project, such as engaging design teams, involving children and your community, planning requirements and the need for technical drawings and specifications.

Finally, before you commence reading we would like to remind you that all playspaces, big or small, should always be fun, inspiring and encourage interaction and use in ways never thought of before. The value of play is in the lessons learnt in childhood. Confidence, judgement, resilience, innovation and well-being can all be successfully shaped in a playspace through this practice of ‘life’ we call play.

Notes

1 Joan Packer Isenberg & Nancy Quisenberry, Play: Essential for All Children. Childhood Education 79(1): 33–39, 2002.

2 Robin Moore & Herbert Wong, Natural Learning: The Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard. Mig Communications, 1997.

3 Sports and Recreation Victoria, Good Playspace Guide: I Can Play Too! 2007. Available online at: http://sport.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Good-Play-Space-Guide_2011_0.pdf.

4 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1975.

5 Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Atlantic Books, Great Britain, 2010.

6 Tom Turner, British Gardens: History, Philosophy and Design. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, Oxford, 2013.

7 Marit Jansson, Children’s Perspectives on Public Playgrounds in Two Swedish Communities. Children, Youth and Environments 18(2): 8...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Dedication and acknowledgements
• List of contributors
• Part I: GROUND
• Part II: SOWING
• Part III: SEEDLINGS
• Part IV: SPROUTS
• Part V: SAPLINGS
• Part VI: THE POTTING SHED
• Conclusion
• Index