Designing spaces for the child in France by the early 1970s according to CRÉE magazine

Abstract

The playgrounds are so interesting in the way that they are a big (even sometimes a huge) area dedicated to kids only. An area where a whole bunch of these young creatures gather and interact altogether in such a way that may never happen again in their adult lives. Built from the barricades of the May 1968 events, CREE (Creations et Recherches Esthetiques Europeennes) magazine would take a cross-cutting look at the contemporary society from a design point of view. Luckily enough, the child would not be forgotten. What makes this magazine special and so typical of the times in the same way, is the constant attention devoted to solutions offered by artists or designers, considering the child. And the solution often went through playgrounds.Seeing the evolution of the child’s landscape through CREE’s eyes is interesting for several reasons related to the era we’re interested in. A bit like most of the things created after 1968 the ambition for this magazine was of a traversal vision. And sometimes with a wide array of perspectives from purely technical to theoretical or political. Because the world according to CREE is filled with various problems that designers can solve, whether it is by their technical skill or by the awareness of the role they play in the contemporary society. The place of the child is one of these problems. Therefore, the magazine’s seven years lifetime shows an idealistic/optimistic vision of a society they believe their generation is about to change, or at least to improve. These 45 issues are our very own playground for this conference, a playground where, publishers and the community of young artists who experienced the tremors of May 1968, whose works they relate, include the child in a more global project of social utopia, by constructing - in the true sense - a place for him or her.