Play was
one of the themes highlighted in a three year Lighthouse
Community Outreach Project funded by the Community
Fund. The project aimed to raise awareness of the relevance
and potential of the built environment, and encourage people
to become involved in the physical regeneration of their area.
Two day long workshops were organised for people interested
in creating or improving play areas in their schools and neighbourhoods.
A series of workshops were run with out of school care groups.
An exhibition called Play
in the City, which documented these projects,
was installed at the Lighthouse in the summer of 2001 and
was very well received - 2000 people visited the exhibition
on the first weekend, and it was favourably reviewed in the
local press.
Wendy Grubb, the Community Development Officer
at The Lighthouse wanted to pursue the issues of play-where
and what people play, and set aside funding to commission
a short research project, which would bring together informative
and inspiring examples of playing places.
Central to the research was the following quote from The United
Nations Convention on the rights of the child (ratified in
1991), which stated:
"States
Parties recognise the right of the child to rest and
leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities
appropriate to the age of the child and to participate
freely in cultural life and the arts."
United
Nations Convention |
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suggests that support should be given to providing for children's
play, but there are some complications. Play is not as free
as it has been in the past and the Children's Play Council
recognise this in their statement:
"Play
is an essential part of every child's life. But children
are losing out on the chance to play because of a hostile
outdoor environment, parent's fears about safety and
a lack of places to play."
Children's
Play Council |
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That there is a lack of places to play suggests that more
need to be provided, but development of any Playing Place
must take this environment and these fears into account. |
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From the beginning, the aim of the research was to inspire
and inform, and to consider outdoor places where play happens
that aren't conventional "play parks". It has become
a short series of case studies of interesting places and projects
with an introduction, and a summing up, and a list of useful
contacts. The intention of Playing Places is still, as at
the outset, to inspire and inform rather than provide a how
to do it guide. The processes that groups or designers have
gone through to make these places what they are may be replicated
or adapted, but every playing place has it's own unique circumstances
which have to be considered in any design or additions. |
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