Designing Play Summary

People always feel anxious that their kids spend too much time on electronic equipment, but no one realizes that comparing to the rapid development of the modern technology, there's nothing could really attract our kids in the traditional nature sites. The article "Designing Play" by Elise Shelle, appears in Landscape Payages, infers that use existing site features can change the present situation that playgrounds are generously based on play equipment. In the article "Just Add Nature" by Jane Roy Brown, appears in Landscape Architecture Magazine, the author illustrates how Boston's outdoor classroom design in a kit of part that as a schoolyard design guide.

Designing Play

The author introduced play space present situation and develops in Canada.

In the design playground project for Ossington Old Orchard Public School, budget was used for build new construction for more students, and playground was compromised. Under this situation, Shelle exploit the existing site by using new slide and stone seating. Unlike others remove obstacles in existing sites, she remain barriers because she considers that obstacles connect nature to children. She used new slide and stone seating into the formerly eroding hillside. She invites new planting and integrated elements for children playing creatively with nature. In the case of city hall daycare playground, the designer was asked to integrate new and re-used equipment in the area of between the roots of two large shades existing trees. Her employer used innovative yet economical features including new surfacing materials, site furnishings and equipment to demonstrate creative play. In another example, she utilized common materials and typical fence construction to separate two age groups for Ontario Daycare Nurseries Act. , and the simple design lets children enjoy multi-use places, they can rest, engage and play at that

When the Boston Schoolyard Initiative (BSI) finish, it has transformed every feasible elementary schoolyard, and Thirty-two of these redesigned schoolyards contain a new model of outdoor classroom. During the first five years of BSI, the schoolyards were redesigned for leaning; architects used worktables, plants, garden beds and concrete amphitheaters, however, the children are not using most of them as learning areas, and plants were destroyed by active use, only amphitheaters became the main notion of outdoor classrooms. After that, BSI launched a three-year pilot project to find out how to design an outdoor space that truly supported teachers.

One goal of the pilot phase was gaining clear ideas of how plants can be survived with low maintenance for the environment of school. A kit of parts was compiled, and that could be flexibly configured at any scale and does not hold back creativity. A primary category is to design a surround fence with a gate to define and protect the classroom with the plants. A second category of parts are including the materials teacher utilized for teaching. Such as natural matter to investigate, scientific tools, animal habitat, signage, raised planters etc. The BSI published the components of the two categories as the Outdoor Classroom Design