Changing Perspectives on Playground Design

SARAH LITTLE | THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON PLAYGROUND DESIGN.

Sarah Little

Assistant Professor

University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture

Sarah Little is a professor of landscape architecture at the OU Gibbs College of Architecture, and a registered landscape architect in North Carolina. For 10 years she worked as a landscape designer in the design/build field creating high-end residential landscapes in the Charlotte metro area. As a registered landscape architect, she worked for 4 years designing children’s play environments and park master plans involving issues of environmental justice and community participation.

In transitioning from practice to academia, Sarah obtained a PhD in Design from North Carolina State University. Her teaching style encourages students to utilize reflective and critical thinking by emphasizing the role of design in creating an experience. Her research broadly focuses on understanding the influence of the design of the physical environment on human development. Her current research projects involve linking human attachment with place attachment, understanding the link between natural environments and autonomy, and developing observation scales for behavior mapping.

THE TRADITIONAL PLAYGROUND

Pros: Designates space for children; encourages a high level of physical activity; creates an iconic identity for a park; potentially facilitates inclusion of children with mobility limitations. Cons: Has a high installation cost; excludes nature (stems, seeds, pods, things that kids like to play with); doesn’t account for all types of disabilities, for instance ASD.

NATURE

Playgrounds can be a way to bring nature into the daily lives of our children. Having nature in our lives brings health benefits. It decreases morbidity and mortality, boosts immunity and cognitive function, speeds recovery from surgery, ameliorates obesity, and it’s a protective factor against mental health challenges.

THE PLAYGROUND DESIGN SPECTRUM:

• Traditional playground: Play on manufactured play equipment, NO nature. • Hybrid playground: Play on manufactured play equipment AND with natural elements. • Nature Playground: Play with exclusive natural elements, NO manufactured play equipment.

2 BIGGEST BARRIERS TO NATURE PLAY

Risk and liability: It’s important to make a distinction between risk and hazard. Hazard is inherently dangerous. Risks are defined by challenge – a good challenge that’s just beyond a child’s current ability level. Managing risk is a healthy childhood development experience; meanwhile playgrounds have been designed to a point where all risk has been removed, and that’s detrimental to healthy child development. Liability determined through litigation. Try to conform to the standards that apply to manufactured play equipment, for instance, the Consumer Product

Safety Commission (CPSC). Example: fall zones. Try to conform nature playground to those safety standards.

Maintenance/management: There’s a need to have buy-in from the crew of people maintaining the park. Shift the perspective from maintenance to management. For example, leaves, sticks, and acorns are usually removed because they’re trip and slip hazards. They should indeed be removed from high traffic areas but could be relocated to another spot on the playground because kids love to play with them. They provide developmental experiences for children.

Resource: National Guidelines for Nature Play and Learning Places

NATURE PLAYGROUNDS

Nature playgrounds relate to many people’s childhood experiences; it’s cheap. For example: instead of removing a fallen tree, shred it, cut up the trunk securely, and anchor it to the ground to create a play experience. Use nature elements to create play props. Incorporate sand and mud. There are ways to bring nature into kid’s life and provide a cost-effective play experience.

HYBRID PLAYGROUNDS

Fall zones and safety surface border of manufactures play equipment can become a place to put planting pockets. Taking advantage of those can transform the play environment. Trees can bring shade, and the vegetation brings natural loose parts elevating the play experience to a new level. The vegetation also can become another place to play. Kids next to ornamental grass become completely immersed in nature and feel hidden, while adults can still have visibility of the child.

EXPANDING INCLUSION

Nature is a protective factor against or helps ameliorate the effects of a variety of types of disabilities. A common experience for kids with a variety of disabilities is having sensory processing issues and barriers to social interaction. The design of play spaces can help ameliorate those issues. Three environmental interventions can help:

• Escape spaces: Private spaces where an overstimulated child can calm down and reset before rejoining the activity, hopefully facilitating social interaction. Caves, cabins, places where they can hide, where they’re able to see outside and feel like they’re not being seen. • Transitions: Providing transitions between play experiences can help special needs children adjust to new experiences and navigate the play and learning area. Use vegetation to block the view before the next play setting; provide signage that describes that activity so adults can help kids prepare for that. • 3D Models: Models can help facilitate social interaction and process sensory information.

They help kids feel what the play experience will look like, and can be especially interesting for kids with vision impairment.

ASK THE EXPERTS!

Talk to the users of the space – the kids! – and get their input.

Resource: “The Routledge Handbook of Designing Public Spaces for Young People” the book shows why we should think about youth inclusion in planning, design, and policy around physical space; how can you include youth in these processes; real life examples of youth being included in projects. On the website there’s zipped file with all takeaways for the why and how sections of the book, free of charge. OU libraries have a physical copy of the book as well at the Architecture library that’s available for consultation.