How Playgrounds Get (mis) used

A friend sent this video link to me, and it's a cringe-inducing one. These are international videos, so they show some equipment that wouldn't be available where we work (United States), but there are plenty of clips that show how kids can still manage to risk injury on a playground. Watching these is actually a pretty good way to reinforce some of what we've learned for play design: fall zones, the reason that some equipment isn't available any more, the need for some common sense... and perhaps the need for REALLY cushioned fall surfacing. Or at least piles of pillows around when people try these kinds of things.

In watching this, I think we'd all see at least one act that we either experienced personally... or saw in person. The minor ones are the kind of acts where we learn our own systems for understanding the balance of risk and benefit... or learning first-hand about gravity, centrifugal/centripetal force, Newton's laws of motion, etc...

Lastly... who would have thought that powering a merry-go-round with a motorcyle was a good idea? And then, how did they find friends who also thought it was a good idea to get onto the merry-go-round... (with the number of clips that show this... it's obviously a more common idea than I ever would have thought)

Avoid the "Serious Meme"... Another Great TED Talk.

Grants for Youth and the Outdoors

We've added a new bar to the right where we will provide links for grants related to youth and children being outside and enjoying the things that outside has to offer. Please let us know about grants that we don't have listed yet!

New: Playscapes Forum

From the maker of the great Playscapes blog comes a forum for all sorts of related interaction. Have a look:
Playspaces Forum.

Snow Choreography

A neat project in Buffalo, where a faculty member was asked to develop choreography for a snow movement master plan (Front Park - An Olmsted Park). I really like how this is treating a landscape as a purely "winter designed" landscape. With pathways and mounds, this is an experience that you will only have in the winter. For how often landscapes are designed for the summer months (and hope for the best in the winter)... this is a refreshing paradigm shift. We also really like how this was modeled with what looks to be sugar.

Playspace Design Guide

A new revision to our "Playspace Ideas Guide":

Winnipeg Warming Huts - 2010 winners

These are the 2010 winners for this "Art  & Architecture Competition On Ice" where people are asked to design warming huts for this downtown river area in Winnipeg. Warming huts can make the difference between a fantastic day out skating (or otherwise enjoying the ice) and a miserable outing (nothing like having cold children). Add art and architecture, and you have something warm AND cerebral (or just pretty).