"A city that has no room for the child is a diabolical thing," wrote the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck. No architect has cared more about how children inhabit cities than Van Eyck, who in 30 or so years after the end of the second world war built more than 700 playgrounds across Amsterdam.
In this article by the Guardian, they discuss a concept close to my heart, 'children's imagination'. The Olympic's are set to take over London and have inspired some wonderful children's projects. Keeping in the theme of "The Playful City", two playgrounds opened for a weekend in the Kings Cross region. The adventure playground and a series of installations designed by the students of Central Saint Martins.
I am on the cusp of the playground world becoming a staple of my day to day. We took my 9 month old son down the slippery slide this week (little response yet) and I admired how safe the playground felt, with it's rubber flooring and rounded plastic edges. Now from a mothers perspective, from which I now sit, this is reassuring. When my son started to pull himself up on any object available, lounge, chair, dog passing by, I was running around putting pillows behind him for the inevitable fall that was to come.
The former pre-baby me, however would look at these playgrounds and note their marked sameness and distance from the real. When you fall in life, it is not commonly onto feather down or recycled rubber. When you do fall, that bruise can be a wonderful incentive for being more cautious the next time around. I have great memories of the hours I spent building cubby houses with my cousin. Precarious ropes attached to precarious objects. When should caution take over play, is a very hard line to find.
The recent tragedy of the two boys that were buried alive when building their cubby, raises that question. It makes me shudder with sadness and I can only imagine the heartache the families must be feeling. It makes for very difficult discussion. I think it is so wonderful that the boys were so creative and independent, even carving out their own bmx tracks. The fact that they weren't sitting inside playing world of warcraft is a great thing. The world is unfortunately, unpredictable and a little scary. The older I get the more caution I find myself taking.
I remember many escapades with my cousin. Riding four wheelers around her grandparents farm, building small dams and practicing our circus skills by tilting the trampoline to a vertical position, climbing up the metal springs and mid air hurling our bodies just in time to bounce on the now almost flat trampoline. Not something that I've done lately. Looking back it seemed an unnecessary skill to develop as it has not once come in handy. Musing on my childhood self, I marvel at how little fear I had. The outdoors were my playground. Finding adventures on my street with the other kids that lived there. I know I would have loved these installations.
I can't help thinking I wouldn't mind seeing a little less rubber and a bit more adventure at my local park. Perhaps I should stop complaining and start designing a bit of adventure in my own backyard. Assuming the council doesn't make me pull it down.
via www.guardian.co.uk
