While we're on the subject of interior playscapes: Chicago-based Design Play Studio used a system of balls and loops to facilitate fort-building at an exhibit for the Chicago Children's Museum in 2009.
This is a definite upgrade from the piles of books I used to hold down the sheets I draped over the couch and table as a child.
I point this out because one of the (many) things I'd like to see change about public playgrounds is the feeling that they are static and fixed.
Adding loose parts helps, but in a way they just serve to point out the inadequacy of what is already there; as in "we-just-spent-$50,000-on-a-playground-and-now-we-need-something-else???"
Why not plan to make the playground itself more adaptable, more fluid? Why not make it easy to, say, drape the playground with fabric for forts?
UPDATE: the good folks at the Chicago Children's Museum have let me know that credit for this exhibit is also due to their in-house design team, who developed the ball and loop system by prototyping and testing it with museum visitors.
No comments:
Post a Comment