So some people from the firm of Michael van Valkenburgh have been in my city this week, having been retained to make a new park that will include (though the community meeting was exceedingly vague) some sort of playscape.
MVVA is particularly good, I think, at articulating the space within a playscape's outlines. They divide a large space into a series of smaller play areas--defining them with lush plantings so that they seem like glades in a forest--as well as into valleys and mountains that allow for climbing stairs and sloping pathways. This technique is particularly evident in the overhead shot of New York's Pier 6 playground which opened in 2010.
Notice how all of the playground features are enabled and made better by the shaping of the ground plane and the islands of greenery. They, not the equipment, define the playscape.
[All photos via MVVA]
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