Things We Like:What Happens When Children Build Their Own Three-Story Playgrounds?

This is the first time I’ve read or heard about children designing and building their own playgrounds and I think it’s fabulous. There couldn’t be a better time to foster children’s innate intuition skills and help them learn to rely on their inner guidance as they move toward adulthood. Besides, at a younger age children are bound to be more in touch with their creativity at a purer level than when they’re older or ‘trained’ in design. Then, whether they pursue design or planning careers or not, they will be more apt to bring these natural skills along with them to whatever they do in life.

Thanks Alex for exploring and sharing this! I hope this gets more publicity and helps more of us think and act ‘outside the box’ as we seek more and better ways to live in harmony with each other – among different age groups, ethnicities, etc., – and who we truly are.

Elena Rivera

What about Berkley’s (California, USA) Adventure Playground that has been there for over 30 years.

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/contentdisplay.aspx?id=8656

We need this in the community I live in!
We built a tree fort in our backyard for the neighbourhood kids, but it wasn’t enough for them. Their favourite thing to do is salvage pieces of junk wood and scrap materials and try and create additions to the fort. They just love creating and want to make the space their very own.
I can just imagine what sort of masterpieces they could create if they were given permission to do so, some guidelines for safety and the proper supplies!
I love this idea!

I think this is wonderful….as a child growing up in the country of south Louisiana, during the 70’s-80’s, we were sent out to play after breakfast and wwe were out playing all day! We built all kinds of forts, playhouses, all on our own! I can’t ever recall any of us getting injured building our creations. I think children are too dependant on someone else or a electronic gadget entertaining them these days…we learned the hard way to never tell our parents we were bored!! If we were bored, we kept it to ourselves for fear of being put to work on some meanial task! Boredom often inspired some pretty cool little playhouses and forts!! We were pretty selfsufficient as children and we were pretty much unsupervised in thr summertime…I think the concept of letting the children do it themselves is great!!

We have one near our house, too, here in Switzerland. My son is two years too young, still, but is so desperate to get involved in the building process. He has to be pulled out of that section of the play ground all the time. I think it is an amazing and wonderful thing for kids to do. Thank you for sharing this!

I think this is WONDERFUL and wish I thought it had even a snowball’s chance in summer of happening even anywhere here in the US. I think that most people are more like my husband (who ironically grew up running around freely in the forests of his native Dominican Republic) who are so convinced of danger around every corner that they don’t trust their eyes to see anything else. Personal observation and studies are no match for deeply ingrained beliefs and fears.

I have made the observation many times that when my children don’t know they are being watched, they are very sensible and cautious about potentially dangerous acts, and they modify accordingly. WHereas when they know someone is around to pick up the pieces, they are more likely to be foolhardy. Nevertheless, my husband thinks it is imperative to be present and observing (micro managing, helicoptering, in my opinion) their every move. According to his way of thinking, our children should have long been dead and/or kidnapped for all the time they spend under my substandard “supervision.” I think he has no idea how much easier his life is because our kids have a small sense of independence and competence due to my way of letting them do things on their own. I think that many more people in this country are of the mindset of my husband than mine, unfortunately. And then there are the lawyers and insurance companies…

This really is great. I guess the 2 factors that always seem to be the “wrench in the works” for allowing so much, unmitigated freedom are:
1)The very few and scattered horror stories of what has happened to a number of kids over the years…often as a result of lack of supervision. Whether it be kids drowning down at the quarry swimmin’ hole or getting picked up by some homicidal pedophile…the thought of such things happening to one of our precious monkeys (though the likelihood SO remote)…the thought is so unbearable that many just throw up their hands and say, “Well, I don’t wanta take the chance– my little Johnny and/or my little Suzy will never ride off on their bikes to places unknown or wander in the forest alone for hours because the ever present (and often irrational) “what if”, tho’ remote, is still possible”.
and-
2) when you LOVE someone as much as your child, the fears and worries of all the things that could harm them loom over all else– regardless of whether those fears and worries are rational or not.

The “one in a million” horror story is enough to set off the irrational perception that the same fate could strike what is close and dear to our hearts…it’s an example of how the “nightly news”, for example, gives us a constant barrage of scary things happening to others which gives us the false insecurity that it’s closer to us than it actually is.

In the Netherlands we are blessed with a longstanding tradition of those ‘bouwspeelplaatsen'( builder’playgrounds). And fortunately, the last few years have witnessed a growing attention for developing ‘natural’ playgrounds as well. In cities, near schools, in nature parks etc. One of the networks with lots of passion and expertise in this field is called Springzaad.
For some inspiration visit:http://www.springzaad.nl/english.php

Alex,

I think it is absolutely great. I have a 3 year old who is very creative and would love to be involved with something like the builder’s playground. I would love to find out about the other areas on the site (kitchen, art studio, etc)I will be looking for inspiration on the web for ideas. If anyone can point me in the right direction please do so. I’ve already gotten a couple of good sites. Thanks so much for your passion and dedication.

This is such a wonderful example of how children can create something without adult intervention and planning. I’m definitely inspired! Whenever I see a public space with the same commercial playground equipment that I have seen in numerous other places, it makes me think of the potential that the space had before those things were cemented into the ground. Thanks so much for sharing this, and I’ll be sure to pass it on myself!

As an early childhood worker this is so fantastic to read and see. In Australia our playgrounds are highly regulated and tend to be built by local councils who are petrified about litigation. There are many playgrounds that seem to stand unused even on beautiful summer days, although often tooo hot in the middle of the day, and i often wonder if this because the children and families have no ownership of these spaces.
The regional center i live in has a wonderful park for young children that includes really good quality playground equipment and many family friendly spaces. The older children have little access to any thing like this. The two skate parks need security guards for supervision, how sad, that we cant trust children enough to be considerate of each other.
Recently there was an article on the national news about a group of children who had built a fort in a beautiful fig tree in Brisbane, Queensland, the council was ordering its removal. Although the council offered to help rebuild something to the childrens design they felt they would have little or no ownership and opportunity to actually build the fort. How sad that Litigation has become such a motivating factor in our lives.

This is the kind of playground I wanted when I was a kid!

My friends and I always wanted to build this sort of thing ourselves but we couldn’t afford it.

That is incredibly cool and inspiring.

I’ve been here! I studied architecture in Berlin this past summer and one of our conceptual sites was the Judischer Freidhof just behind this awesome playground. We had to walk though the playground a few times and were completely amazed by what we saw. This place is so incredible, and has so much design potential for kids. Fantastic stuff!