The Playground Project

Abstract

Book Reviews 190 The Playground Project Gabriela Burkhalter, Editor (2016) Zürich: JRP|Ringer, 256 pages. $49.95; ISBN 978-3-03764-454-6 Gabriela Burkhalter, curator of The Playground Project exhibited at the Kunsthalle Zürich from July 15 to October 30, 2016, also edited and authored the accompanying exhibition book. She is a Swiss political scientist and urban planner who has documented the history of playgrounds on her blog since 2008 (www.architekturfuerkinder.ch). Drawing from this rich collection of photographs, drawings, text and film, Burkhalter showcases playgrounds from the 1940s to 1970s in Europe and the USA, as well as Japan and India. The book provides a detailed introduction to the playground movement in the industrialized city of the 20th century and beyond, and points to the problem of many standardized playgrounds today. What follows is the historic work of individual artists, architects, landscape architects, sculptors and social scientists. This exhibition catalogue provides a comprehensive overview of playgrounds that is of interest to design and policy experts, but also the general public who share an interest in play sites, perhaps through their own childhoods or that of their children and/or grandchildren. In his foreword, Daniel Baumann, the director of Kunsthalle Zürich, questions the lack of interest in recording playground history. I agree with his observation, with exceptions like Joe L. Frost’s A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments and Susan Solomon’s American Playgrounds, which historically contextualize contemporary playground problems. Most readers will have played in designated play spaces or playgrounds as children, yet like the transience of childhood and the fleeting moments of play itself, we tend to leave playgrounds behind as we move on with our lives. The Playground Project is the first visually rich publication of playgrounds from an era before the 1980s, when concerns about playground safety began to emerge and restrict experimental playground design. In the collection, Burkhalter showcases the social experiments, risky adventures and climbable sculptures that were driven by the philosophies and social influences of their time. Playgrounds after the postwar era saw the establishment of “adventure” or “junk” playgrounds. In Denmark and Britain, these were sites where children could construct, build and experiment with loose materials. The Danish landscape architect, Carl Theodor Sørensen, was an advocate for natural children’s play spaces and an early proponent of junk playgrounds that became an international symbol of change and children’s creativity. Sørensen wrote that “of course it would look terrible” (p. 186), an admission that his concern was with the experience of play and not design and aesthetics. The idea was brought to New York by the architect Richard Dattner who found his inspiration “by watching children playing on the streets of New York and by doing extensive research into the philosophy, psychology, and sociology of children’s play” (p 79). The landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg created urban landscapes, rather than play spaces for children, and like the adventure playground created opportunities for intergenerational activities. Book Reviews 191 The sculptors Egøn Möller-Nielsen and Josef Schagerl created both public art and play opportunities that were readily integrated into public space in Stockholm and Vienna, respectively. Burkhalter’s account captures concerned individuals who wanted to carve out a space in the city for children to play. Aldo van Eyck created small playgrounds scattered throughout the city of Amsterdam, while artist and activist Palle Nielsen and his supporters created “guerrilla playgrounds” in residential district of Denmark. The interdisciplinary Group Ludic shared the ambition to create places for children to play and joined forces to design interesting play environments in and around Paris. Social, experimental and participatory architecture and play spaces are captured, such as the work of architect and artist Riccardo Dalisi in Naples. The designers’ work presented in this book all seem to share a common goal, which is to push the boundaries of creative play. The boxer and sculptor Joseph Brown stated in 1965, “I still think that play is the most important area of education in our country today and that its importance is sadly unappreciated” (p. 60). Playgrounds have changed and, more often than not, today we find...