Design for Play

PLACES for PLAY: Photo Exhibition

Policy

Playwork Practice

Designing Play Spaces

Play at School

Risk and Safety

Play Publications

Play Space Design

Resources

Design for Play: a guide to creating successful play spaces

Design for Play, written by a Free Play Network team consisting of Aileen Shackell, Nicola Butler, Phil Doyle and David Ball sets out 10 Design Principles to illustrate elements of play space design. Published by Play England and the Department for Children, Families and Schools, a summary is available on the Free Play Network website or full text is available free from Play England.

Managing Risk in Play Provision

The partner publication to Design for Play is Managing Risk in Play Provision: implementation guide, by David Ball, Tim Gill and Bernard Spiegal. It is available free to download from Play England.

Implementing Play Design Principles Workshops and Study Tours

The Free Play Network organises workshops and study tours on key aspects of play space design.

Issues covered include:

• designing for inclusive play;
• risk and play;
• effectie community engagement - working with residents and tackling NIMBYs;
• solutions for dealing with dogs, unfenced sites and loose fill surfacing;
• how to design play spaces where children can play out unaccompanied in natural environments;
• how to create an effective play space on a small budget
• and all aspects of designing for play.

The emphasis of the day will be on practicalities - how problems have been tackled and design solutions found.

For more information contact Nicola Butler, nbutler at freeplaynetwork.org.uk

Archives

In 2002, PLAYLINK hosted the first Designs on Play Conference. Presentations and resources from the conference are available below.

• Presentation to the Designs on Play conference, 2002
• Murergaarden, by Danish landscape architect Helle Nebelong.
• The Nature playground in Valbyparken
• The Garden of Senses in Faelledparken, an example of an accessible space for children with disabilities.
• The Children's Millennium Garden,

Publications and Resources

• East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a new accessible playground located in the south-eastern part of Copenhagen featured in the Free Play Network Newsletter.
• 'The Experimental Playground', Video Presentation by Hattie Coppard, Director of Snug & Outdoor, to the 7th PLAYLINK/Portsmouth City Council conference on Learning Environments, 2004
• No Particular Place to Go?, by Ken Worpole is a Groundwork Trust publication which addresses the issues of children, young people and public space and the question of how best to design public spaces to include young people.
• Messages from the PLAYLINK/Portsmouth City Council Designs on Play conference were circulated at the government's Urban Summit in November 2002.
• Making Connections, by Sandra Melville, reproduced from Lesiure Manager magazine, September 2002