I’m jumping off the digital page early next month and into the Halifax Public Libraries system for a presentation and discussion on playgrounds and play.
Over the course of two evenings, we will look at the history of playgrounds, design, natural play, risk, adventure playgrounds, play advocacy and other topics.
If you’re in the Halifax area, please consider this your invitation to drop by. If anyone has friendly advice on dos and don’ts when presenting about playgrounds and play, drop me a line.
If you could pull Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam out of Middle Earth and plonk them down in Nature Trust’s The Vyne in Basingstoke, England, they might think they’d been transported back to The Shire and out of harm’s way.
Simon Jackman, founder of the Green Play Project, is making hobbit magic for kids, hobbit holes to be precise as he recounts on the company’s website. “The centrepiece is a huge grassy mound accommodating a variety of play features: hobbit holes linked by interactive sound tubes; a cascade of red limestone boulders to be climbed; a wooden bridge leading to a fort-like structure built around an upturned tree with its roots splayed against the sky…”
PlayGroundology caught up with Simon last week just before he returned to the site on a Friday evening to put in a few minor modifications. He loves working for play.
There’s quite a lot of good play areas going in around England at the moment. We have a chance to do more with National Trust. We’ll get to do some interesting work for them. I never like to do the same thing twice so we’ll have to come up with some new and better ideas.
It’s the first playscape that’s made a bit of a splash around the world for the Bristol-based company with write ups in the New Zealand Herald, The L.A. Times and plenty of other publications in between. A landscaper by profession, Simon turned his hand to designing playscapes full time after working with other companies on the installation and landscaping side.
For this project, there’s maybe a little bit of Rivendell magic in the air. The unique design is a crowd pleaser amongst the kids – so says a school group that took it for a test ride last week. Hear it straight from the kids in this video from The Vyne.
In these bucolic surroundings with rolling hills and emerald green grass, it’s easy to forget about the Orcs, Nazgul and the rest of Sauron’s nasty lot. This is the perfect place to enjoy the outdoors and run off that second breakfast. Simon’s interest is seeing kids out and about having fun in the natural environment. You could say he’s a bit of a latter day Tom Bombadil.
Under construction
Just as we wound up our conversation, Simon let me know he was a huge Neil Young fan and has seen him live twice in London. He suggested that we Canadians might want to think of a Neil Young themed playground. Now Simon, what would that look like and could you give us a hand?
Can’t get your head around a Neil Young playground but interested in a hobbit hole out in the backyard? Well you’re in luck because squidoo has some awesome info for you.
Just back from a trip to Mé’s hometown, Sorel, Quebec. It also happens to be the birthplace of PlayGroundology. The three wee ones, Mé and I spent the Easter weekend with Mé’s immediate and extended family. It’s always great to get there and be welcomed into the fold. And the kids, well they jump for joy every time we hit the road to visit les grands-parents. I’m right there with them, I understand their excitement. For all of us Sorel is ‘play central’.
It doesn’t seem to matter what time of the year we arrive, playfulness is in the air. The maestro, the impressario is grand-papa Raymond. The now retired primary school physical education teacher knows how to hit all the right notes. And we of course have the gift of stepping outside of our domestic and professional daily routines.
In July of 2008 we spent some quality time hanging out in Sorel. Raymond got Noah-David and I out to different playgrounds almost every day. At nearly three-years-old, Noah was adventurous and wanted to try everything. He was a climber, a slider, a swinger… Those couple of weeks with Raymond made up the most concentrated burst of playgrounding we had ever done and the first time we had visited a series of playgrounds day after day.
PlayGroundology started here
The sun drenched weather, the fun and simplicity of the activities and the Ville de Sorel’s posting of playground locations online inspired me. In the summer of 2009, I started blogging about Halifax, Nova Scotia’s playgrounds in Halifax Plays.
As I started to explore, I gained an appreciation of the richness and variety of the playground world – design, landscaping, preservation, community engagement and of course the intrinsic value of play itself. It was clear that there was an abundance of interesting historical and contemporary stories to share from a variety of international sources. PlayGroundology made its debut six months after Halifax Plays hit the streets.
There was enough warmth in the air this Easter weekend for a couple of playground excursions. We took the five minute walk through the ‘magic pathway’ (a pedestrian connector between two streets) over to Parc des Trembles. This playground, one of our favourite stops in Sorel, is a like an old friend even though it’s over 1,000 kilometeres from our Halifax home. We know the swings, slides and obstacle course like the back of our hands. The familiarity brings comfort, warmth and even after all these visits a tinge of excitement. There is as much love, memories and milestones invested in this park as any of our local playgrounds in Nova Scotia.
We made time to get over to grand-papa’s old school too. We all wound up with soakers as our feet crashed through a thin layer of ice and into shallow puddly pools below. It wasn’t enough to deter us from scampering about the old equipment or trying out the new gargantuan multi-climber.
There was plenty more play during those few days in Sorel – horseback riding with the cousins, swimming, floor hockey and a trip to Brossard to see the Montreal Canadiens practice. We love the time we spend together in Sorel’s playgrounds. They’ll always have a special place in our hearts.
Just look into a child’s eyes as they happen upon a wriggling worm. Before scooping it up, they watch as it bends, turns, twists its glistening annulated skin through crumbling earth. There is wonderment at play seeing this movement, the peek-a-boo tunneling, the coiling retreat.
Source: architektur fur kinder
Behold the Lozziworm conceived and designed by Swiss sculptor Yvan ‘Lozzi’ Pestalozzi. First introduced in the 1970s, there are somewhere in the vicinity of 110 spread out across Europe in parks, playgrounds and schoolyards.
Source: architektur fur kinder
Thanks to PlayGroundology reader Cynthia Henry who shared the news that a Lozziworm is on its way to Pittsburgh, USA to be an outside beacon for the 2013 Carnegie International. A Carnegie spokesperson told PlayGroundology that there’s “a play structure because the International this year features works by artists that deal with play, both in the traditional sense of being playful, but also in the sense that play is the wellspring of creativity and making–many of them play with very serious ideas, or turn history upside down.”
The Carnegie’s Lozziworm is scheduled to be in place for play by late April. The ground is being prepared now. A profile view will look something like this.
Courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Before signing off, take stock of Lozzi’s credo, they could be words to live by.
Think like a mature human being – enjoy life like a child.
We’ll be in touch with the Carnegie next month to get more info on the playground related exhibits during this year’s edition of the International.
Oh, you might be wondering what does one do with a Lozziworm? Crawl, climb, jump, squeeze through the dark interior, reconfigure the shape and of course endless games from the imagination.
We are the only species that sets aside dedicated space to be used exclusively for play by our young. But in many countries throughout the world humans are not the only ones populating playgrounds.
Playground in Sofia, Bulgaria. Source: Snezhka Karatoteva.
It’s as if some of Noah’s precious charges were peppered across playscapes to watch over and amuse the human young. There are African and Australian animals from the wild, barnyard favourites and mythical creatures.
The playground animals serve multiple roles – slides, teeter-totters, climbers and springriders. They are also a friendly reminder that there is a natural world for us to engage with and care for.
Playground in Sofia, Bulgaria. Source: Snezhka Karatoteva.
There are more great photos from Zemen, Bulgaria to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in the PlayGroundology curated gallery ‘Animal Farm’ right here.
Editor’s note – thanks to Snezhka Karatoteva from Sofia, Bulgaria who recently dropped in on the PlayGroundology FB Page and offered to share playground photos with PlayGroundology readers. Check the blog here.
In a matter of just a few hours, Chris Gregory will be readying himself to get out the door to work at the Children’s Centre in Douglas, Isle of Man. He’s been preparing for this day since April 1, 2012. No, it’s not just any Friday. This Friday marks the beginning of an epic journey. For the entire month of March, Chris will be making his way to work by a different means of transportation to raise awareness for outdoor play and safe routes for children.
If you really want something to stand out in peoples’ imaginations it has to be a little bit silly and the fact that you’re promoting children’s play it has to be something quite playful — Chris Gregory
Chris laments the changes that have come about in kids’ lives over the last two or three decades. The days when kids were out playing more, walked to school as a matter of course and generally had more independence and freedom are not that far behind us but sometimes they do feel like a distant memory.
In my case they are back in the old days a bit. It was the mid-1960s when I started walking to school on my own and getting out and about unsupervised in the world. In many respects, the lives of current day grade school kids bear little resemblance to how we played and to how independently mobile we were when I was growing up. I really think today’s kids are missing out.
Good on Chris Gregory for creating this fun and imaginative March2Work campaign. I hope it will help to broaden the conversation around children’s play and independence. PlayGroundology will be dropping in on Chris a couple of times during the month to see how he’s holding out. It can be a grueling three kilometers before he arrives at his office door.
Let’s all wish Chris well as he heads out on his maiden voyage to mark the 2nd annual March2Work.
Recently, I posted the photo below on PlayGroundology FB commenting that I thought the tank had found a better purpose than for what it was originally intended. One of my regular readers didn’t agree. She thinks war machinery has no place in kids’ playgrounds.
A couple of days later I came across articles in the San Francisco Chronicle about a fighter plane that had been a play structure fixture for more than three decades in San Francisco’s Larsen Park. It got me thinking, would I allow our three young kids to play on a tank, or in a fighter jet?
Monstrum playscape in Nørrebroparken, Copenhagen. Photo credit – Jan Ingemansen. License – (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Back in the mid-1960s as a young lad in grade school getting the bi-monthly short back and sides at the barbers, I was an avid after school and weekend warrior. I lived in Toronto then and our apartment block bordered on a 10 to 15 acre green space. The hills were dotted with unmanicured shrubs and a valley plain served as a soccer and baseball field, bike rodeo and a gathering place for war games. It was a green oasis but no pastoral idyll. On the other side of a six foot high Frost fence at the southern extremity of our play zone, the 12-lane 401 highway roared by. Our activities continually played out to the droning buzz of fast flow traffic.
Along with sports and playgrounding, war games were a recurring part of our play menu. Even though real life conflicts in Vietnam and Biafra raged on newscasts we chose our recreations from contemporary pop culture. Sgt. Rock, who seemingly single-handedly won the World War II for the allies, was one of our primary inspirations for mid-century warfare. James Bond was of course our role model in the world of spylike skullduggery against our Cold War foes. A number of us were packing the 007 spy attaché case.
Reaching further back in time, we pretended we were fighting in the American Civil War. There wasn’t much left to the imagination from the scenes depicted in the Topps Civil War News card set. Then there was also the Hollywood fueled reenactments of epic Cowboy and Indian clashes. No matter the historical period, we had the rifles, machine guns, helmets, knives, canteens, grenades and other necessary accoutrements to vanquish the enemy whoever that might be.
Topps Civil War News Trading Card, 1962
We played regularly taking turns being the ‘bad’ guys. We were killed, resurrected and played on. There was one family of five brothers whose parents’ religious convictions had them attending an evangelical church. There only stricture was no war games on Sundays. At the time, it was the only opposition I was aware of to our grade school warrior play.
About 15 years later I was back in Toronto working in the peace movement organizing short term international youth exchanges focused on volunteer activities with a social justice twist. The early 1980s was a time of demonstrations in Toronto trying to raise awareness about conflicts in Central and South America, South Africa and about militarism in our own backyard such as work being done in support of the Cruise Missile. At the time I was an ardent and righteous anti-war toys guy and pro ‘arms are for hugging’.
Not a lot has changed for me since then except perhaps that the certainty of black and white solutions has become more grey. I’m as passionate as ever about arms being for hugging. I’ve never bought toy guns for any of our kids and never will. Regardless the kids fabricate them with different materials – sticks, blocks, lego. Just yesterday, Noah and Nellie were scooting around the house ‘shooting’ at each other. When I gave them my one minute exposition on what guns do to people, Noah quipped, “these are pretend water guns papa”.
The war toys debate has been on for decades. Though not toys per se, these pieces of decommissioned military hardware in playgrounds are seen as birds of a feather. Here is a young David Halton on Canada’s CBC TV in December 1965 reporting on a Voice of Women campaign.
xxxlCBC TV, December 1965 – Voice of Women Campaign
It was easier when I was a kid. I was embroiled in the moment and the ethos of the times. I loved my Daisy air rifle and my Hong Kong machine gun that made the noise and sported a facsimile flame of red plastic at the barrel tip. I don’t think I was desensitized. I would argue in fact that many of today’s video games are far more graphic and violent than anything we experienced as kids.
If an old CF-18 dropped into our neighbourhood playground tomorrow, I’d let the kids play on it. I’d also let them know what kind of machine it was. In a way, I think we’d be beating swords into ploughshares. What are your thoughts?
The British Columbia Teacher’s Federation has produced an excellent resource – War Toys to Peace Art – that you can download here.
PlayGroundology has just wrapped its third year of blogging about the world of play and playgrounds. Following are nine posts that readers found popular. If you didn’t see them first time around, I hope you’ll take a moment to sample two, or three. If you like them, share with others – play never has a best before date. Happy playing and thanks for reading PlayGroundology!
Photo credit: J. Bruchet. Source:Architectures de cartes postales. Designer: Pierre Székely. Cité des Jeux – L’Haÿ-les-Roses, France
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for France so I’m always on the lookout for interesting play stories from that part of the world. Our family lived there in the early 70s. I was 12 when we arrived and 15 when we left. It was my gawky early adolescent phase which I like to think I’ve outgrown. (more…)
Paradise might be a bit of a stretch but Malmö, Sweden is quite simply playgroundalicious. It’s the kind of place that would inspire Mary Poppins to gather her young charges around her and umbrella them off to adventure – up through the atmosphere/ up where the air is clear/ let’s all/ go to Malmö. (more…)
There are four stunning, brilliant images in the March 1 edition of the The New York Times Magazine offering glimpses of children at the Somerford Grove Adventure Playground in London, England. (more…)
How do you spice up your morning commute to work and at the same time make it more meaningful? Look no further than my friend Chris Gregory for an answer. Chris is a champion for play at the Isle of Man’s leading children’s charity The Children’s Centre. To raise awareness for outdoor play and safe and playful routes for children, he is taking a different means of self propelled transport every workday for the month of March. His epic journey started out with a 3 kilometer spacehopper commute. Do I hear sore thighs? (more…)Note, Chris is in training for his second run at March 2 Work.
Two acres of green space in the Dzorwulu neighbourhood of Accra, Ghana are being primed for transformation. It’s all about the kids, or Mmofra as they are called in Ghana’s Akan language.
This story, about a small plot of land, spans decades, continents and generations. It’s the story of a woman’s vision, of her love for children. The seeds were sown 50 years ago when the late Efua Sutherland wrote her groundbreaking book on Ghana’s play culture, Playtime in Africa. The narrative and accompanying photographs by Willis E. Bell were the first real documentation of children’s play in the newly independent African nation. (more…)
Earlier this spring, Sir Ken (Robinson) shared his views on education with an appreciative audience in Halifax, Nova Scotia – home of PlayGroundology. I was one of the 1,000 in attendance who enjoyed an accomplished and entertaining critic of conventional wisdom about education and creativity. No props, no notes, plenty of humourous asides and always an à propos anecdote. (more…)
Have You Heard What They’re Saying About RISK? Listen Then Share
Generally speaking, parents want their kids to experience the fullness of the world – the quiet beauty, the dizzying adventure, the discovery of self and others. As much as possible we want to keep hurt and injury at bay but they too are part of the mix with cuts, scrapes and breaks both corporeal and psychological. So how do we go about assessing risk? How do we ensure that our kids aren’t enclosed in a cocoon of safety?
I saw this video a couple of nights ago and thought I would play a small role in helping to spread the word. Right now it’s at 373 views. After you’ve watched it, please share with your friends and your broader network.
Thanks to the Alliance for Childhood and KaBOOM! for producing this piece.
There’s something cosmic about swinging, a certain je ne sais quoi. When I saw Teena Marie Fancey’s Baby Boy at The Craig Gallery on Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s waterfront a couple of years ago, I knew I had found a great opening image for a paean to swings. Thanks Teena. (more…)
Robert Burns Day is a fine time to share a flickr photo gallery of Scottish playgrounds. Though playgrounds per se were not part of Burns’ 18th century cultural landscape, I have a feeling that in today’s context Scotland’s Bard would be a vocal and formidable supporter of children’s right to play.
Burns personified the independent mind which is also a characteristic of parents, teachers, advocates, designers, artists, playworkers, landscape architects, planners and community organizers involved in making possible creative play for kids. Free play and independent minds, I’m sure there is a correlation…
Raise a dram for Rabbie tonight and rest assured he’d be speaking out for the bairns if he were with us today. In his absence, we have the fine folks at Play Scotland to carry the torch and fight the good fight – kids everywhere have a right to play.
Here’s leaving you with a wee bit o’ Burns.
To a Mouse
Small, sleek, cowering, timorous beast,
Oh, what panic is in your breast!
You need not start away so hasty
With a hurrying scamper!
I would be loath to run and chase you,
With a murderous spade!
I’m truly sorry that Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes you startled
At me, your poor, earth-born companion
And fellow mortal!
I doubt not that you may steal;
So what? Poor beast, you must live!
An odd ear from twenty four sheaves of corn
is a small request:
I’ll get a blessing with the rest,
And never miss it!
Your tiny housie, too, is in ruin!
Its feeble walls the winds are strewing!
And nothing now, from which to build a new one
Of foliage green!
And bleak December’s winds ensuing
Both bitter and keen!
You saw the fields laid bare and wasted
And weary Winter coming fast,
And cosy here, beneath the blast,
You thought to dwell,
Until crash! the cruel plow passed
Right through your cell.
That tiny heap of leaves and stubble (grain stalks)
Has cost you many a weary nibble!
Now you are turned out for your trouble
Without house or home (belongings),
To endure the Winter’s sleety dribble,
and frosty cold.
But Mousie, you are not alone
In proving that foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes (plans) of mice and men
Go oft astray (oft go awry)
And leave us nothing but grief and pain
Instead of promised joy!
Still, you are blessed, compared with me!
Only this moment touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye
On prospects turned to sadness!
And though forward I cannot see,
I guess and fear!
Play never goes out of fashion and supermodel Natalia Vodianova is keeping it very much in vogue through her Naked Heart Foundation. Since 2004 she’s been raising funds to build playgrounds throughout Russia – at last count 60.
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And what an influential, not to mention well-heeled, list of friends and businesses support the cause. With runway chops like Louis Vuitton, Valentino Garavani, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar you can’t go wrong.
Over the last several years, Natalia has brought together fashion luminaries, friends, artists and entertainers in fundraising celebrations she has dubbed the Love Ball. To date, these spectacular parties for play have rocked Moscow, London and Paris and graced the fashion and society pages of publications around the world.
Love Ball 2011, Chateau de Wildeville (Paris) – Harper’s Bazaar, September 2011
Earlier this month, the BBC and other media outlets reported on the Naked Heart Foundation’s first foray into the UK, Natalia’s adopted home. An inner city neighbourhood in Liverpool will receive £100,000 from the foundation for its kid designed playground that will be completed in the spring.
Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, actress Anne Hathaway put a nice twist on Natalia’s playground passion:
Natalia chooses to mask her charity work by masquerading as a supermodel – which is a very bad disguise if you ask me.
Now on the off chance that any of us get invited to a future edition of the Love Ball we can glam out with these playgroundista fashionista accessories.
Next on the block is the must have tattoo for a Love Ball outing, an original line drawing by Marc Johnstransformed into a tattly. Thanks again to SwissMiss for this find.
And finally the playground chic pièce de résistance – custom designed heels that you can just slide into from designer Kobi Levi.
Ok, now I think I’m ready to be pointed in the direction of the nearest playground catwalk.
From Russia with love, Natalia Vodianova a philanthropic playground angel.
Valentino and Vodianova in Vogue Daily a sneak peak in advance of the White Fairy Tale Love Ball held at Chateau de Wildeville. Photo credit – Kevin Tachman
PlayGroundology scours the web for all things bright, beautiful and occasionally tarnished in the world of playgrounds. You'll find posts here about design, art, civic engagement, history, equipment old and new, photography, advocacy groups, bloggers and oddities.
Get out, get active, play, play, play...
Alex Smith
Editor PlayGroundology
...an emerging social science
Concept and design – Rachel Hawkes Cameron.
Source: Elle, April 2010.
