Have adults forgotten how we played as children? Playgrounds dominated by identikit equipment are monuments to collective acts of forgetfulness.
Maybe children have changed. Perhaps they don't know how to play anymore.
But observing children left to their own devices proves this wrong. They will do much as you did as a child. They'll use environments to their best advantage - build dens, be active and passive, be social and solitary, delight in natural areas. They'll take risks that, through intuition and experience, they've judged worthwhile. Too many playgrounds appear constructed for a different sort of child.
Commitment to transform how we think about, design, plant and equip places where children play is needed. This requires a break with old practice - constructing play areas after communing with catalogues and 'consulting'
communities to induce a sense of 'ownership' of the woeful ironmongery perched on impact-absorbent surfaces.
Creating wonderful places for play requires acknowledging the uniqueness of individual areas. Designs should use quality materials, express a sense of place and offer a range of experiences. Places for play are best left 'unfinished' so they can be responsive to whims. They should acknowledge children's need and right to take risks.
There is much good work, but more is needed. This includes securing changes in the content and implementation of planning gain agreements and procurement processes; in the understandings, attitudes and objectives of parks and leisure departments and in the design briefs for children's centres and extended schools, to name a few.
* See www.playlink.org.uk and www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk.
