#imagination playground

[wflchildrensroom]

Another great weekend of Big Blue Blocks! The slide was particularly successful. Join us again this weekend - we will have Big Blue Blocks out all day, all ages, every Saturday and Sunday in June!

Thanks to the Wellesley Free Library Foundation, Kellogg Fund

[ckg97smom]

Playground Profile: John Janega Memorial Park {Lindenhurst}

Playground Profile: John Janega Memorial Park {Lindenhurst}

John Janega Memorial Park is one of the oldest parks in Lindenhurst, and the beautiful property has received a facelift in recent years. The wetlands have been restored, with boardwalks, and the new playground equipment was added with some unique, local character. The park is named after resident John Janega, who was the unofficial caretaker of the property. When the park was re-opened, features…

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[adventurebabyblog]

Day trip: Taking the East River Ferry to the Imagination Playground

Day trip: Taking the East River Ferry to the Imagination Playground

With the temperature (finally!) rising, life with a kid is all about finding ways to cool down. There are only so many times you can go to your closest splash park before you literally go bananas from boredom (sorry, it’s the truth!). So why not venture out of your neighbourhood to try something new? You’re not the only one who will enjoy checking out a new playground – and getting there and…

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[campnabby]

The Yale boys (5-year-olds) might just grow up to be architects. If only they could help straighten up the mess on 202. Either way, this is Imagination Playground at its finest. 

[ameliaepp-blog]

Today I read about the fabulous Imagination Playground, which is a placespace concept described in the above video. It consists of large foam parts of various shapes and sizes which can be manipulated in an outdoor or indoor setting. The flagship Imagination Playground is located in Manhattan's South Street Seaport. The goal of the designers is to nurture "child-directed, unstructured free play." I love this concept, and would love to get my hands on an Imagination Playground in a Box the next time I teach an architecture and planning class for kids! How fun would that be?

Learning about the Imagination Playground today reminded me of the concept of adventure play, which dates back to Europe in the 1940s. Adventure playgrounds, also known as junk playgrounds and work yards, are "places where children can create and modify their environments rather than relying on rigid equipment that only serves a limited set of programmed purposes." These types of playgrounds grew out of community efforts to encourage children to "build and envision their own playgrounds." Look here, for more information about this phenomenon. Modern versions of adventure playgrounds are rare, so it's interesting to see the designers of Imagination Playground exploring this concept.

[theartobject-blog-blog]

Rockwell's Playground

There is a small article in the new issue of Metropolitan Home (my favorite design magazine) about David Rockwell's "Imagination Playgrounds." Rockwell, the man behind the design at the W hotels in New York City and the Tate luxury building in Chelsea, has created playgrounds that are fresh, innovative, and whimsical. The playgrounds, or sculptural environments, are designed to be altered and manipulated by children. The Rockwell Group writes, "Imagination Playground provides children with “loose parts,” a large array of movable objects, so that each visit is a new experience. Using play props – such as building blocks of various shapes and sizes, buckets, brooms, shovels and found objects – kids can build something, tear it down and start all over again. Carts, wagons and wheelbarrows allow kids to load, unload and move stuff – precisely the type of “work” children universally love to do." One Imagination Playground has already been built in Brooklyn, with 1,000 more to come. I loved looking at the design--this place looks like big fun.