Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul

Abstract

334 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 22 No. 1 (Spring 2012) ISSN: 1546-2250 Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul Keeler, Rusty (2008). Redmond, WA: Exchange Press; 313 pages. $48.99. ISBN 9780942702477. In the book Natural Playscapes, Rusty Keeler describes “a new movement in children’s outdoor play areas”—one with endless possibilities, transformable by seasons, days, and rhythms of nature as well as the children themselves. Full of poetry, art, and bits of wisdom, the book is an inspiration for outdoor environments that are beautiful, playful, magical, transformable, and designed for the holistic development of children. The book is organized into two primary sections: a visual journey for inspiration and a practical guide for planning, organizing, and funding a children’s playscape. This resource section also includes useful sources for materials, relevant research as well as some doit -yourself guides for simple play elements such as sunflower houses or tile mosaics. Keeler writes that the book is designed foranyone interested in designing a natural playscape, and it truly is accessible for the novice in children’s design. Educators, school administrators, parents, community members, community-based organizations, early childhood centers, children’s museums, as well as designers and artists may find inspiration and helpful guidance in all aspects of the process, from early conceptualization through installation to evaluation. It is this accessibility to people with diverse levels of experience that sets this book apart from many of the other books that have emerged in the last decade on the design of children’s spaces. The “visual journey,” which constitutes the majority of the book, is full of color photographs, illustrations and designs. With its playfulness, vividness, and accessibility to readers, it reminds me of A Child’s Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children by Molly Dannenmaier (2008), and makes a wonderful 335 companion to this book. Like Natural Playscapes, Dannenmaier’s book features the playful and diverse work of many designers and children’s gardens. Keeler’s book differs, however, in bringing focus to the design of cost-effective playscapes for different settings, including early childhood centers and preschools. He also provides practical guidance for engaging children in the design process and tips for facilitating a community design-build process for playscapes. Rusty Keeler has more than ten years’ experience designing natural playscapes around the world. He started as a designer of children’s play equipment in Denmark, and through his travels became enchanted by the Netherlands’ myriad public spaces, full of nature and wildness, frequently designed by the community. He concluded that “pieces of equipment with a safety fall zone are not enough” (17), and that children deserve rich sensory experiences, full of complexity and beauty. He draws from his experience to share ideas about children and nature, basic elements of natural playscapes, conceptual designs, and built playscapes. Some of the inspiration he brings to the book includes “key ingredients,” such as hills, water, pathways, hideouts, and sand—basic building blocks that diverse playscapes usually contain. Yet Keeler also reminds us that though there are key features to children’s play areas, these must emerge from the social, cultural, and ecological place as well. One example of this concept comes from his experience developing a playscape with a community in Chengdu, China. He describes his initial response to the site as a “field of concrete” with playful but non-functional arches. But hidden to one side of the yard were two living structures made of crepe myrtle. He learned that Chengdu was known for its whimsical living structures, and this became a primary feature of the playscape design in this community. Keeler highlights diverse ways to draw on community assets and local talents, whether it be the living structures of Chengdu; a local mosaic artist in in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; or a wood sculptor in Ithaca, New York. He stresses that drawing on these unique resources not only brings the community together, but creates one-of-a-kind playscapes that represent the community socially, culturally, and ecologically. In 336 addition, identifying and embracing these resources builds local ownership and is frequently more cost-effective. Keeler weaves consistent cases throughout the...