As population pressure grows, our homes are becoming smaller and more crowded. As our home outdoor space shrinks, play areas need to fulfill many more roles. The activities we used to do at home will need to be accommodated in urban open space, public parks and school playgrounds.
“A good park should be like a big shared garden - where people relax, eat, drink, grow flowers, feed the birds and play around."
Michael Rowland Parks policy officer, Bournemouth Borough Council.
We design for healthy children - our partner physiotherapist and occupational therapist, landscape consultants and horticulturalists (who know which fruit trees for public playgrounds grow best and where, which trees provide best shade and are safely climbable), psychologists (who understand the importance of social and quiet play space) work together with our play designers to create natural and sensory play areas.
We design for a healthy environment - our ecologist will survey species currently in the area and suggest how to improve bio diversity. Our environmental engineers and landscape consultants work with the client and the Environment Agency to provide sustainable drainage solutions for our play areas.
We design for healthy people healthy living communities - our urban design play designers and landscape architects engage the community, consult widely and design the overall space to include elements chosen through the collaborative process.
To provide a sustainable solution requires deep thinking at the planning stage to ensure all needs are met. By collaborating with a broad range of experts our clients save time and money.
We design for sustainable, cost efficient use of public funds. Greenstone Design UK brings together the full range of social, health, education, environment, design and play consultants. Natural Play for healthy living, adaptable, inclusive public play grounds for sustainable communities, require a new way of thinking. Greenstone's play designers' broad vision combines the expertise of our multi disciplinary team to ensure balanced, cost-effective playgrounds for disabled and non-disabled children and their families.
Natural play and sensory play - sandpits, digging areas, water play, trees to climb - the fun stuff of childhood - is becoming increasingly important in public playgrounds. Public funding has shrunk as health and inequality concerns have risen requiring playgrounds designs to incorporate many more elements than just play equipment.
Sustainable playgrounds design promotes sustainable communities. Picnic areas that encourage families to linger and enjoy inclusive outdoor play opportunities will complement healthy eating at home.
As our climate changes, shade trees are becoming increasingly important. Edible fruit trees around playgrounds provide shade, scented blossom, add bio diversity and importantly will add to locally produced food stocks.
Childhood development requires activities such as climbing, swinging, balancing to develop gross motor and then fine motor skills. Imaginative play can happen anywhere. Where play designers are encouraged to provide cost effective designs, where there is less playground equipment but more flexible open ended play, the space is adaptable and the environment suggestive. Public playground design, like school playground design, can and should accommodate these needs.
School play grounds can be magical places when sympathetically designed. Public playgrounds, like schools, require a variety of play elements. Natural and built structures can combine for low maintenance, beneficial risk, high impact play.
Increasingly, the non-school environment is perceived as unsafe for children’s
play. Schools are one of the few places left where parents still feel it safe to send
their children. This offers schools the opportunity to be part of the process of
reawakening both parents and children to the possibilities and benefits of play.
Control of their own play activity is a crucial factor in enriching children’s
experience and enhancing their development. Play provision should be based
on the principle of empowering the child and increasing their choices. This
should include children’s participation in devising, building and rebuilding their
physical play environment. Sustainable playground designers must heed this need for flexibility and adaptability in natural playground designs.
“Some years ago I would not have highlighted [natural play and Education for Sustainable Development] to OFSTED for fear they would consider it a distraction from core business. Now … I am confident that our work in this area has made a direct difference to pupils’ achievement, behaviour and health and I’m therefore proud to discuss it with inspectors. … Without doubt sustainable development has helped our children to develop a greater sense of care towards each other, the natural environment and the wider community… preparing [them] for the future.” -
Head teacher
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- attention to wildlife corridors
- increase bio-diversity through habitat creation or habitat enhancement e.g. placement of bat boxes, bird nest boxes, wildflower meadows, varied planting, maintenance regimes such as leaving long grass in certain areas
- access - will the playground withstand the pressures of constant use?
- careful project management of the installation to ensure natural elements are retained
- to be self sufficient in water supply
Planning your play ground or community garden?
- Engage a suitable playground designer to canvas the ideas and opinions of all user groups. For example, a natural playground design brief must consider the needs of teenagers, dog walkers and bird watchers as well as the young children and parents. This stage must be fully and carefully considered to ensure the success of the project. Planning objections, vandalism and antisocial behaviour are seldom a problem if all user's needs are taken into consideration from the outset.
- Commission a play designer (the same sustainable playground designer is ideal) to draw all the ideas together into an overall plan. This will show the play area design, using scaled drawings of the site including services, and detail the materials to be used.
- Funding can come from your local authority or any number of community and environmental grants (Note: Play England recommend independent play designer's fees are paid as a direct cost of the project )
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CABE Public Space 2008 Scholarship winners talk about what they learnt about sustainable playground design
Michael Rowland
Parks policy officer, Bournemouth Borough Council.
Michael traveled across Europe to France, Germany, Norway, Denmark and Sweden before heading to Canada and the USA, to learn how to deliver high quality, vibrant playground designs for parks within a town centre. He explored different types of spaces including waterfront parks in Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Malmo) and 'emerald necklace' park systems in Seattle (USA) and Vancouver (Canada) as well as studying the idea of bio diversity and environmental sustainability.
“Almost all the parks I visited incorporated facilities, such as BBQs, to encourage people to gather in them, rather than worrying that it might lead to anti-social behaviour, whilst the towns themselves had excellent cycling infrastructure to allowing easy access to their open spaces. I feel confident now that I can develop a vision for Bournemouth’s parks taking the best of design and innovation to produce something beautiful, engaging and exciting for the town’s residents.”
Paul Quinn
Regeneration manager, West Northamptonshire Development Corporation.
Paul travelled to Germany, Sweden and Denmark as well as visiting projects around the UK to study best practice in town and city centre public realm and the public spaces in and around residential developments.
“Visiting these places has helped me understand what the best looks like, how it is delivered and how it will perform over time. And very often it’s the more stripped down, inexpensive schemes which work best - we have much to learn from our colleagues in the U.K. and northern Europe about how to avoid overcomplicating schemes and creating additional costs through the over specification of materials, street furniture and lighting. The scholarship has given me an enormous amount to work with in terms of experience, ideas and vision and has inspired me to deliver the best possible open spaces for the communities I’m working in.”
Sam Parry
Parks officer, Bristol City Council (previously working for Oxford City Council).
Sam travelled across Europe to Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden to gain a better understanding of how parks and open spaces can be designed with young people in mind.
"Young people are often ignored when parks are created, with the belief that a small, fenced off play area will be sufficient to keep them amused and a fear that encouraging activities such as skating and cycling will attract anti-social behaviour. In contrast, many of the European cities I visited put the needs of young people at the centre of public spaces. In Stockholm children are allowed to have barbecues and build their own play huts and in Holland homezones allow children to play in almost every street. I aim to use these examples to inspire my own work and to show other parks professionals how these processes and ideas can be developed."
To see projects we have worked on and get ideas for future playground designs, please click here.
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