The playground – a threatened species?

Proper playgrounds for children above the age of 8 years are scarce. On top of that most of the few playgrounds for older kids fail to offer proper challenges: they resemble the playgrounds for the 4-year-olds, only bigger.

This situation is an indication of too many inadequate playgrounds and play equipment designs for this age group. FIRSTLY it is outdated from a humanitarian point of view: children have a UN declared right to play. They should be welcomed and their needs and rights respected in the public sphere. Adequate play opportunities are manifest signs of the respect of children’s rights.

Respecting these rights means listening to children’s wishes, also in product design. At KOMPAN we had an international youth board and a survey of 1040 young people’s wishes for their outdoor environments made by a professional polling bureau to guide us make properly documented, timely solutions for children of today. The insights from this work has lead to the KOMPAN GROUND principles for playground planning. It has also resulted in innovative product designs. One of these, BLOQX, is a new play sculpture that can be placed anywhere, in squares in urban or sub-urban surroundings, to offer the powerful and challenging climbing activities and meeting points that older children want.

SECONDLY the majority of the traditional playgrounds for the older children are outdated because they fail to contribute to solving some of the societal issues that many cities face these years, i.e. overweight and obesity in children, vandalism and lack of ownership. Listening to the young people’s wishes will, apart from making them feel seen and heard, be part of a solution for these issues. Listening to young people’s wishes will usually also mean intense physical activity. KOMPAN had a user board of young people test out the BLOQX in the process of making its final design. Some were members of climbing clubs, but most were just ordinary kids aged 8 and up.

FINALLY playgrounds as a concept might risk being outdated in the future if they are themselves outdated. Children find other ways to play when the playground is not attractive, leading to societies missing out on the obvious advantages that playgrounds offer. Playgrounds as a concept risk being outdated because childhood has changed, and many children today have a world of play choices.

Computer games are a top priority of most children above the age of 8. Many parents worry about the effects of computer games on their children’s social, physical and creative development. But good quality computer games have proven to stimulate social interaction, just in new ways. They have proven to enhance creativity, given that you have the right games. The thing they miss out on, though, is the physical exercise and the face to face challenge of meeting new kids. The perfect scenario, it seems, would be to have computer games in a free access outdoor setting, allowing kids to be physically active, respecting their right to play AND their interest for computer games. In other words: to have digital play solutions in the playground, respecting the special environment that a playground is.

As a result of this KOMPAN is launching an electronic playground concept that will be based on the play patterns of children above the age of 8 years. The concept has no screens and will guarantee intense physical and social interaction of a large amount of children at the same time. The actual product has been developed over years in cooperation with older children, child researchers, gaming experts, technology professors and playground customers across Europe, with great success. In 2009 the first examples will be displayed in parks in among others Singapore. This will mean a vitalization of older children’s play and an optimization of playgrounds. It will make them more relevant for the young people of today – and save them from extinction.

KOMPAN provides award winning playground equipment including swing sets, slides, rope nets and playhouses that suit all ages and abilities.

KOMPAN Playscape Pty Ltd
12 Kingtel Place, Geebung, Queensland, Australia, 4034
kompan.au@kompan.com
http://www.kompan.com.au

This release was published on openPR.