An adventure playground is a specific type of playground for children. Adventure playgrounds can take many forms, ranging from "natural playgrounds" to "junk playgrounds", and are typically defined by an ethos of unrestricted play, the presence of playworkers (or "wardens"), and the absence of adult-manufactured or rigid play-structures."Play is a process that is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. That is, children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their play, by following their own instincts, ideas and interests, in their own way for their own reasons." Adventure playgrounds are frequently defined in contrast to playing fields, contemporary-design playgrounds made by adult architects, and traditional-equipment play areas containing adult-made rigid play-structures like swings, slides, seesaws, and climbing bars.
History Adventure playgrounds are based on an idea from Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sørensen, who noticed that children were more fascinated by piles of scrap materials than the playgrounds that he had designed. In 1931, he articulated his vision of a "junk playground in which children could create and shape, dream and imagine a reality" that offered the play opportunities of rural areas to children in cities.
In 1943, the first adventure playground was set up by a Workers Cooperative Housing Association in Emdrup, Denmark, during the German occupation of the 1940s. The playground grew out of the spirit of resistance to Nazi occupation and parents' fears that "their children's play might be mistaken for acts of sabotage by soldiers". The 1946 book Why Not Use Our Bomb Sites Like This? caused "the idea of transforming bomb sites into 'junk playgrounds' to spread in the United Kingdom. The book, written by an English landscape architect and child welfare advocate Marjory Allen, discussed the Emdrup playground. Previous youth workers, including an art therapist in a Blitz-era play center in London, had identified permissive play as a tool to combat childhood aggression.
Harry Shier, in Adventure Playgrounds: An Introduction (1984), defines an adventure playground as "an area fenced off and set aside for children" where they can "play freely, in their own way, in their own time" and "build and shape the environment according to their own creative vision". The spaces have been referred to with English terms such as "junk playground" (a calque from the Danish term skrammellegeplads), "waste material playgrounds", or "bomb-site adventure playgrounds". The term "adventure playground" was adopted in the United Kingdom "in an effort to make the ‘junk’ playground concept more palatable to local authorities".
British architect Simon Nicholson praised adventure playgrounds for teaching "the relationship between experiment and play, community involvement, the catalytic value of play leaders, and indeed the whole concept of a free society in miniature.'" He argued that in a play area, or any environment, "the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery" are correlated with the number and variety of what he called "loose parts", such as old tires, hammers and nails, mud, and random found objects.
Play advocates have emphasized the importance of adventure playgrounds for children of color in the United States, where policing "can feel like a kind of occupation".
List of adventure playgrounds As at 2015 or earlier, there were about 1000 adventure playgrounds in Europe, most of them in England, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland. There are also adventure playgrounds in Japan.
This is an incomplete list. The Americas
Canada TELUS Spark, in Calgary, Alberta has a Junkyard Playground open in the summer months. The city of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, piloted a mobile adventure playground in five city parks during the summer of 2016. Toronto Ontario hosted an Adventure Playground from 1974 until the mid-1980s. It was a part of the revitalization of the waterfront called Harbourfront Centre. The City of Coquitlam in British Columbia created an Adventure Playground in the summer of 2018 as a pilot project.
United States The Yard, established in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1949, the first adventure playground in the United States Adventure Playground in Berkeley, California, established in 1979 Huntington Beach Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach, California, established in the 1970s Adventure Playground in Irvine, CaliforniaAdventure Playground Sacramento Adventure Playground in Sacramento, California The Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone in Ithaca, New York, established in 2012
Adventure Playground at The Parish School in Houston, Texas Play:groundNYC on Governors Island in New York City, established in 2015 SCV Adventure Play Foundation in Val Verde, CA.
Heckscher Playground in New York City's Central Park Tarr Family Playground, also in Central Park in New York City
Asia
Japan The Setagaya Play Park or "Junk Playground" in Hanegi Park in Setagaya ward, Tokyo, Japan.The Setagaya Play Park was featured in episode 48 of Arirang's "Going Global" series Children’s Dream Park 川崎市子ども夢パーク (or "Yume Park") in Shimosakunobe, Kawasaki Takatsu Ward, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
Australia Australian Capital Territory POD Playground at the National Arboretum, Canberra. Ridgeline Park Playground,Denman Prospect Ruth Park Playground, Coombs
New South Wales
Bungendore Park. Bungendore Carberry Park Adventure Playground, Gundagai The Adventure Playground Jubilee Park. Cootamundra
Northern Territory Jingili Water Gardens Playground, Darwin Adventure Play Park. Katherine
Queensland Flagstone Adventure Playground and Skate Park. Flagstone. Hinterland Adventure Playground. Cooroy The Jungle Adventure Play. Tingalpahttps://www.mustdobrisbane.com/kids-whats-on-kids-indoors-rock-climbing-play-birthday-parties-indoors-games/jungle-adventure-play Hervey Bay Adventure Playground. Pialba
South Australia
Jubilee Park Adventure Playground. Port Noarlunga Monash Adventure Park. Monashhttps://www.berribarmera.sa.gov.au/council-services/infrastructure-services/points-of-interest/monash-adventure-park St Kilda Adventure Playground. St Klida
Tasmania Kingston Park Playground. Hobart Riverbend Park. Launceston
Victoria
Hays Paddock playground, Kew East KidsTown Adventure Playground. Sheppartonhttps://kidstown.org.au Lake Pertobe Adventure Playground. Warrnambool The Venny, Kensington Adventure Playground. Kensington. Community Bank® Adventure Playground Hadfield Park. Wallan
Western Australia All Ages Playground. Katanning, Western Australia. Manjimup Heritage Park Adventure Playground. Manjimup Rio Tinto Naturescape. Perth. Chevron Parkland, Optus Stadium. Perth.
Europe Denmark Denmark has several adventure playgrounds, now known as Byggelegeplads (Building-playground) and formerly as Skrammellegeplads (Junk-playground). From the first site in Emdrup, the idea spread across the country and at the height of the popularity in the 1960s, there were about 100 adventure playgrounds in the country. Present active adventure playgrounds in Denmark includes:
Skrammellegepladsen in Emdrup, Copenhagen. Bredegrund Byggelegeplads on Amager, Copenhagen. Remiseparken, on Amager next to Bredegrund. Regnbuen in Hvidovre, a suburb of Copenhagen. Rødovre Byggelegeplads in Rødovre, a suburb of Copenhagen. Byggelegepladsen Broparken, Rødovre. Byggelegepladsen Rønneholm, Rødovre. Højkjær Byggelegeplads in Brøndby, a suburb of Copenhagen. Skolemarken in Aarhus. Søndergård in Lystrup, a suburb of Aarhus.
Germany Abenteuerspielplätze und Kinderbauernhöfe in Berlin, or AKiB for short, is a federation of adventure playgrounds and children's farms in Berlin, Germany
Italy Ai Pioppi Playground, Nervesa della Battaglia.
Netherlands Jorgensland, a self-contained adventure playground on an island in Amsterdam Sweden St Hans bygglekplats in Lund Borgarparkens bygglekplats in Lund Klostergårdens bygglekplats in Lund
Switzerland Robi-Spiel Aktionen—An organization of adventure playgrounds in Basel, Switzerland
United Kingdom Camberwell, London The Triangle Adventure Playground in Oval, South London. London's oldest adventure playground still located on its original site. Slade Gardens Adventure Playground, Stockwell, London. Lollard Street Adventure Playground, Kennington, London. Evergreen Adventure Playground, Dalston, London The Playground aka Adventure Play Hub, St John's Wood, London Glamis Adventure Playground Tower Hamlets, London Weavers Adventure Playground, Tower Hamlets, London Eccleshill Adventure Playground, (also known as The Big Swing) Bradford Lockleaze Adventure Playground, Bristol Felix Road Adventure Playground, Bristol St Paul's Adventure Playground, Bristol The Land (Adventure playground), Wrexham, Wales Meriden Adventure Playground Solihull, West Midlands
Literature C. Th. Sørensen (1931): "Parkpolitik i Sogn og Købstad", "Risk and Safety in Play: The law and practice for adventure playgrounds (2003)" Joan Almon, Editor. (2017) Playing It Up—With Loose Parts, Playpods, and Adventure Playgrounds, Annapolis, MD: Alliance for Childhood. Mike Lanza (2012): "IPlayborhood. Free Play Press
Academic BDJA: Adventure playgrounds and city farms in Europe and what they contribute to sustainable urban development, a study from Germany
Leichter-Saxby, Morgan (2007) Constructing the “Natural” Child: The Materiality of Play, Power and Subversion at Evergreen Adventure Playground. M.A. thesis, University of London. Retrieved 22 January 2017. Sutton, Lia (2005): Kinderparadijs (Children's Paradise): Advancing the Adventure Playground Movement, a student's thesis (Hampshire College, Massachusetts) Wilson, Reilly Bergin (2014) Who Owns the Playground: Space and Power at Lollard Adventure Playground (1954–1961). M.A. thesis, University of Leeds. Ben Highmore, Adventures in Lollard Street: An Experimental London Playground, 1955–60, History Workshop Journal, Volume 97, Spring 2024, Pages 174–195, https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbae001
Film Erin Davis (2015): The Land British Pathé (1950–1959): Come Out To Play Reel 2 1950–1959 includes a "junk playground" sequence. William H. Whyte (1980): The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces includes a "junk playground" sequence. Alliance for Childhood – play:ground NYC
Arts and Theatre Junkyard (musical) written by Jack Thorne about Lockleaze Adventure playground (or ‘The Vench') in Bristol.
See also Children's street culture Home zone/Play street Playwork Pop-Up Adventure Play Sudbury School Tinkering School Makerspaces Free-range parenting Forest kindergarten Lady Allen of Hurtwood
Notes
References
External links The Overprotected Kid, The Atlantic, 2014 Inside a European Adventure Playground, The Atlantic, 2014 Where the wild things play, NPR, 2014 Play Wales, the national charity for children's play. Adventure Playground: A Parable of Anarchy