landscaping & external works
Developing great play spaces – it’s ‘Simply Play’
By Beth Cooper, creative play associate for the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project between Sheffield Hallam University and Timberplay
briefs can often lead to the development of yet another identi- kit playground. When attempting to create playable spaces that serve the wider community it can be difficult to select the correct combination of equipment and landscaping to satisfy the various needs of that community and meet tight budgetary constraints. The primary consideration when developing any playable
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space should be the play value. Play value is not the amount of equipment a designated play space contains. Play value can be defined as the opportunities offered by an object, exchange, experience or environment for an individual or groups to immerse themselves in play and can be yielded by many things inherent in a given site; a tree with low branches, long grasses, natural slopes or loose materials all hold great play potential. The recent movement towards ‘natural play’ has gone some
way to raising awareness of integrating landscaping into play areas, utilising planting and trees to create spaces that are not only pleasing, but provide places for us to have real experiences with nature. There is a prevailing mind-set rooted in the work of play theorist Bob Hughes, which suggests that play spaces are compensatory spaces, provided in place of free access to the natural landscape. If this is the case there is a duty for architects, planners and all those involved in the development of playable spaces to develop quality spaces for communities. If we keep in mind the objective of developing a play area
with maximum potential play value, utilising landscaping alongside play equipment, it becomes apparent that focusing on meeting this criteria can actually be more cost effective than just investing in equipment alone. The challenge here though is for Architects to be able to identify where the play value lies, and to recognise the shortcomings of any given site and how these can then be addressed through development. While it is true that there are a range of assessment tools for
play areas in the public arena, these focus on a wide variety of different aspects of play space development, location, inclusion, safety among a few of the issues covered. These are all aspects that can impact on the success or otherwise of a play area but often, under all these other layers, the primary purpose of the play space; play, is lost. Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) has an established rep-
utation for knowledge and understanding of play. When approached by Timberplay regarding the development of a Play
s many architects are aware, provision for play is an essential factor in building successful communities. Pressures on time and requirements to fulfil vague
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Value Assessment tool they created a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to support the development of such a tool. Led by Perry Else, senior lecturer in Playwork at SHU the project set out to develop a tool that could be used alongside other avail- able resources which assess other aspects of play spaces. ‘Simply Play’ is the result of this project and will be freely
available by September 2012. Consisting of 45 questions, Simply Play distills the essence of play. As well as looking at the physical space and what this enables children to do, i.e. climb, run, jump etc, it also looks more deeply at the experiences avail- able within any site. Does the site enable children to experience the elements, provide opportunities for group play and inter- action? These factors are harder to quantify, but by approaching these issues in a series of concise questions they become simpler to understand and then consider in the design process. The aim is that this tool, built on a strong foundation of play theory, can be used by one and all, regardless of their knowledge of play. Those who already have a good understanding of play can use the tool to gain a better understanding of a specific space, but those who do not have that deeper knowledge can use the tool to gain an insight into the possibility of the space. The aspiration for ‘Simply Play’ is that it will become an
invaluable resource for all those involved in the development of playable spaces. Primarily architects should be quick to recog- nise the benefit of using the tool, not only will this help them in the development of effective community spaces, but the data the tool yields will also help push for high quality spaces during consultation as opposed to quantity of equipment. Beyond this, ‘Simply Play’ has value for all involved in play, from councils, to schools, to community forums and friends of groups.
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‘The recent movement towards ‘natural play’ has gone some way to raising awareness of integrating landscaping into play areas’
Simply Play will be available via the Simply website by the beginning of September. You can register your interest for the tool at
www.simplyplay.org.uk and there will be a number of launch event workshops scheduled for the Autumn
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