Designs on Play
PLAYLINK/Portsmouth City Council
Play Conference 2002, 1 October
Why are so many children's playgrounds unimaginative and indistinguishable?
Why do so few reflect the spirit of their locality or children's
desire for excitement and mystery? What could be the role of artists
and designers in creating individual environments children will
be drawn to for their play?
Designs on Play initiated an exchange of working
ideas between designers and planners and those with responsibility
for, or interest in, play services and playgrounds.
The main focus of the day was on case studies presenting successful
examples of creative design for supervised and unsupervised playgrounds
and for play in public spaces.
The conference was chaired by Ken
Worpole, one of Britain's most influential writers on urban
and social policy. Worpole is a member of the Government's Urban
Green Spaces Task Force and has a background in adventure playgrounds.
Keynote speakers included Kim
Wilkie, landscape architect, urban designer and environmental
planner and Robin Sutcliffe,
chair of the Play Safety Forum.
Portsmouth Leisure Services "facilitating debate in partnership
with PLAYLINK".
Resources
- Making Connections, by Sandra Melville,
reproduced from Lesiure Manager magazine, September 2002.
- Come
out to play, Today is National Playday. Only one problem:
there are very few places where children can run about and have
fun. Ken Worpole on the lessons we can learn from the Dutch. From
The Guardian, 7 August 7, 2002.
- The
way forward, The story garden, by Sophie Petit-Zeman, The
Guardian, 7 August 2002.
- Design
for Children, Exhibition at the Stedelijk
Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam
Useful Links
- Ken Worpole, writer,
policy adviser, public lecturer.
- Sutcliffe Play,
innovators in the field of children's play.
- Kim Wilkie Associates,
landscape architects, urban designers and environmental planners.
- Helle Nebelong, Danish
landscape architect. Helle's website includes information about
projects including the Naturlegepladsen
i Valbyparken (Nature playground in Valbyparken) and Murergarden
pa Norrebro i Kobenhavn.
- The
Government's Urban Greenspaces Task Force, Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister.
- Child
in the City, Bruges Conference, 22, 23, 24 September 2002.
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