Robinsonspielplatz-冒険遊び場情報室-Avonturen bouwspeelplaats-Animation playground-Abenteuerspielplatz-Byggelegeplads

In a sense, you and I have always
played in “adventure playgrounds.”

We created a fort in the kitchen cabinets,
jumped from couch to couch across oceans;
we snuck out through a hole in the fence toa new world. We climbed trees and hid inbushes. We played in the mud and the rain.
We chased each other, made secret worlds
with our own language. We created spaces
with whatever we could ﬁnd around us.
Some of us played in abandoned buildings,
or barns, or vacant lots between buildings,
used what we found and made up stories of
our lives to be. We looked everywhere toﬁnd our space.
We made a childrenʼs world in thecity and in the country. Imagine, a placethat provides all that, in the middle of acity. Here you go, hammers, saws, nails,
wood, tires, rope, cloth, whatever you canﬁnd. Make it yours. You can change thisplayground right here, right now. You donʼthave to make an appointment. You canwalk or ride your bike, and there are people
here to help and encourage you. What if
you had that space? What if every child hadthat space?

Lia Sutton

les01@hampshire.edu
http://adventureplaygrounds.hampshire.edu

ADVENTURE PLAYGROUNDS:a children’s world in the city

An afternoon ...

It is winter but the leaves are still on the ground. The playground issurrounded by a small wood in a city park. The fence around the playground is made from railroad ties and you can easily step over the fence,and they do; kids do not necessarily come in through the doors.
Sam arrives at the playground and steps over the fence. He spots Pete,the playworker, and he jumps and hugs him. Sam is 15 years old. He grewup at the playground and now volunteers as a playground helper. Sam andPete sit down with the other staff around a wooden table and drink sometea.
Children start arriving at the playground, and they call from the window. Sam runs to the window, “Hello Beth!”“I would like some nails and a hammer,” she says and hands Sam her
bike key. He puts the bike key with a Lego pirate, a sparkly bracelet, andother irreplaceable childhood possessions.
“Here you go,” he replies. Beth is 10 years old with shoulder length
brown hair. Sheʼs short for her age, and everyone thinks she is seven oreight. Beth comes inside with Matt. Matt is 9 years old and lives a coupleof blocks from Beth.
“Pete! Pete!” she says, “Come play with us!” More kids surround Pete.
Pete chases them out the door, and they run out of the building and jump
onto a big cushy mat covered by a circus tent.
The kids bounce towards the edge of the mat and then hop back, tempting Pete to see if he can catch them. They try to avoid being captured, but
not too hard. If they get pulled off, then they get thrown high up in the air
and back down onto the mat.
On the other side of the playground a cluster of children slip out between the fence where the water ﬂows through. The water creates rivers
through the leaves and the children lay planks across the water and attempt
to walk across without getting wet. The water is only a couple of inches
deep but it doesnʼt seem to matter; the game is in their imagination.
Beth spots Sam and she is excited to see him. They have been hanging
out all week. “Come help me and my friend Matt build something,” shesays.
“Sure,” says Sam. Sam, Beth and Matt discuss the possibilities.
“We could build a pirate ship,” says Beth.
“...Or a house and then we could build furniture,” says Matt.
“We should build a tree house and a ladder to climb into it,” says Sam.
“...Or a post ofﬁce,” says Matt.
“Yeah! And then everyone could have mailboxes so their mailwouldnʼt get lost,” says Beth.
“Yeah, and all the houses could have numbers so they know where todeliver the mail,” says Matt.
“That would be so cool!” says Beth. “Letʼs do it.”
“Okay, so what do we need?” wonders Sam.
“Hmmm, okay Matt, you get three hammers and some nails...Iʼll get thewood,” says Beth.
“Where should we build it?” says Sam.
“In the center of all the forts and houses in the playground!” says Beth.
“Yeah, how ʻbout next to Jaime and Mollyʼs house?” asks Matt.
“Awesome,” says Beth.
In a couple of minutes the carpenters meet up at the select spot carrying all the tools and wood. Sam has cleared “the lot” of a couple pieces ofwood, a cart, and two tires. “Okay, Sam, you hold up that 4x4,” says Beth.
She starts to nail a 2x4 (2 inch by 4 inch piece of wood) onto the 4x4 tostart the base of the building.
Matt calls to Pete, “Come over! We are building a post ofﬁce.”“That is a great idea,” says Pete, walking over.
“Pete, can you hold the other 4x4 up so I can nail it?” Pete holds thewood up and Matt nails the 2x4 to it. They raise all the corner posts andthen begin nailing in strips of wood around the sides, starting from the bottom and moving up. Some of the pieces donʼt ﬁt; they are too wide or too
long, but they get nailed on just the way they are. They hammer at least
one nail on each side of the boards. Sam says that it will be stronger if they
put at least two nails on each side, so they do. They nail four 2x4ʼs aroundthe corner posts and then lay strips of wood across the roof and nail themon.
“Let me try standing on the roof,” exclaims Matt. Matt jumps up andposes himself on top of the structure, grinning and laughing as the structure
starts to sway slightly beneath him. “I guess we need to support this better,” he yells “Ahh, I am coming down.” He leaps off the roof as if it werea tall building, when in fact the post ofﬁce is only 4 feet off the ground. “I
made it,” he says. “Lets go ﬁnish supporting the roof and the walls.” It
has been about 2 hours since they started the post ofﬁce and the outside isalmost done.
“This is awesome,” decides Beth. “Tomorrow we can make a post ofﬁce
sign and decorate the inside.” Beth, Matt, and Sam sit inside the Post Ofﬁce discussing their lives, school, their dreams, and eventually get aroundto how the post ofﬁce will work.
At the end of the day, Pete does not bother to close the gate. He says it
is winter and there are not so many children. As we leave, Beth and Mattand some other kids consider the details of their new postal system.
“Bye, Pete,” they all say.
“Bye,” says Pete. He knows they will watch the playground.

Essence of adventure play:
Learning & the Development of Social
Relationships:
Children learn through contact--direct contact withdifferent environments, materials and people. They
learn through their relationships with other adults
and children, they learn by doing things and manipulating their environments. At adventure playgrounds children gain knowledge through experience-based learning, by thinking through problems
and ideas with adults and other children.

Creation:Childrenʼs ideas inspire the creation of their own
activities, structures and games. Adventure playgrounds might be initiated by adults, but they areinvented by young people. Children build thestructures, create the activities, and in turn have an
immediate impact on the nature of the playground.

Community:
Community is important for children and for adults.
Adventure playgrounds provide an opportunity forchildren to meet one another and make their own
community through games, activities, and the development of friendships.
Adventure playgrounds become centers, accessible to the entire community, with both indoor andoutdoor play areas. Adventure playgrounds can belocated within a childʼs neighborhood, providing afree and open space that both children and adults
come to whenever they want.

Children in the City:
All children need a space that they can call theirown, a place where they can be loud, dirty, silly,
spontaneous and anything else they feel like. Adventure playgrounds can provide such a space evenin the middle of a large city.

“ Adventure playgrounds were not the invention of an individual, but of the ingenuity of children everywhere who havealways chosen the exciting never-never land of dump grounds, construction sites, and nature’s areas for their play.”-Joe Frost, a professor of education

Why are Adventure Playgrounds important?
A place for PlayAdventure playgrounds provide a space for children to play freely.
Play is a right of all children as stated in Article 31 in the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child. Play is essential for children to develop intellectually, physically, and emotionally.
At adventure playgrounds children get to play how they choose;they are not limited by ﬁxed play equipment or by organized activities orgames. Children are given the safety of an enclosed supervised environment. Playworkers are always present to mediate disputes between children and help them when necessary.

A place for interaction

The environment of an adventure playground encourages social
interaction. It is a social space in which children interact with adults andchildren. At conventional playgrounds, children tend to play mostly with
their siblings, friends or caretakers. At an adventure playground, children
create new relationships. Adults do not need to be present, stressing theimportance of child-child interaction and relationships.

Children spend a great deal of time building structures, and doing so
requires the help of their peers. Children converse to a greater extent withother children at adventure playgrounds than in conventional and contemporary playgrounds [two types of playgrounds with ﬁxed equipment]. At anadventure playground children learn to negotiate their relationships.

A community space, a space for children to call their own

A child at an adventure playground in Berkeley, California madea sign that said “our home.” Children feel ownership over the adventure
playground, and they take responsibilty for the space because it exists as aresult of their efforts. Adventure playgrounds provide a space for children
and adults which brings the larger community together.

A place for development

Adventure Playgrounds provide a space for childrenʼs developmental growth. At the Mark Twain adventure playground in Houston Texas a
combination of surveys and standardized tests revealed that childrenʼs aggressive behavior was reduced and opportunities for solving problems wereincreased. Children also made signiﬁcant gains in social responsibility andsocial problem solving.

Adventure Playgrounds around theworld

T. H. Sørensen, a Danish
landscape architect, noticed thatchildren preferred to play everywhere but in the playgrounds that
he built. In 1931, he imagined “Ajunk playground in which children
could create and shape, dream andimagine a reality.” Why not givechildren in the city the same chances
for play as those in the country. His
initial ideas started the adventure
playground movement.
The ﬁrst adventure playground opened in Emdrup, Denmarkin 1943, during World War II. In
1946, Lady Allen of Hurtwood visited Emdrup from England and was

impressed with ʻjunk playgrounds.ʼ
She brought the idea to London.
These ʻjunk playgroundsʼ became
known as ʻadventure playgrounds.ʼ
From then on the movement
grew to provide adventure playgrounds for children with disabilities
and included the formation of theHandicapped Adventure Playground
Association, currently known as
Kidsactive. Adventure playgrounds
spread throughout Europe, particularly to Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands,
France and Germany. In Switzerland, the ﬁrst two playgrounds
opened in 1955, and in Germany in1967.
Currently, about 1,000 adventure playgrounds exist in Europe,
largely in Denmark, Switzerland,
France, Germany, The Netherlands,

and in England. In Germany alone
there are some 400 adventure playgrounds. Japan has a signiﬁcantnumber of adventure playgrounds as
well.
In the U.S. there are currently two adventure playgrounds,
in Berkeley, California and in
Huntington Beach, California. The
Adventure Playground in Berkeley celebrated its 25th birthday in
2004. The adventure playgroundin Huntington Beach was one of
the ﬁrst adventure playgrounds in
the U.S. and has been around sincethe 1970ʼs. Up until this year there
were three adventure playgrounds in
Houston, Texas as well as a Houston
Adventure Play Association. Theyclosed due to a loss of funding.
Many of the adventure playgrounds
that existed in the U.S. closed forsimilar reasons, either loss of funding or loss of the lease on the land.
In 1999, Berlin hosted aworldwide conference entitled Anima21: Adventure Playgrounds andCity Farms for the 21st century. The
conference included workshops on
working with animals, children as
experts, diversity training, and local
activities including felting, basket
making, solar toys, wind games,
creative wood work, and soundsculpture. The documentation of theconference is available online, withthe link in the appendix.
Many people are working
to make adventure playgrounds anavailable space for young people
and still others have already integrated adventure play ideas into
their existing playgrounds and community centers.

Frequently asked questions
Are Adventure playgrounds safe?

One of the main concerns about adventure playgrounds is that they arepotentially dangerous. As Clare Cooper Marcus, a landscape architect,notes:“It is true that the site is often rough, structures built by children may behazardous, tools could be used in a dangerous way--but all available
evidence indicates that the children are so absorbed in what they are
doing, and so cautious in attempting anything beyond their present capacities, that the accident rate is in fact lower than that on conventional
playgrounds with ﬁxed equipment.”
Conventional playgrounds are safe only if children use them in the way
adults intend them to i.e. if children do not climb where they are not supposed to, stay behind railings, and donʼt climb on top of certain structures.
Children do not necessarily abide by these rules and often get injured atconventional playgrounds.
“The safety record of adventure playgrounds in excellent,” states Joe
Frost, a professor of education. The Mountain Park adventure playgroundin Houston, Texas recorded few injuries. Only .014 percent of the 15,000
people attending the park during its ﬁrst 4 months of operation sustained injuries and these were mostly skinned knees, scrapes, and hammered thumbs.

What type of supervision is there?

Adventure playgrounds are staffed, whereas conventional playgrounds
often are not. Every adventure playground has staff called ʻplayworkersʼ orʻplayleadersʼ to supervise the playground. The playworkers are well trainedin child safety and remain constantly aware of what is happening at theplayground. Because children are part of the process of building adventure
playgrounds, they are more aware their surroundings.

Are there rules?

Ideally adventure playgrounds are unstructured spaces for children, but
one must also provide a safe environment. Many adventure playgrounds
deal with structuring a free environment by creating some basic guidelines
and then letting the children do what they want within those set parameters.
One of the ways to create order and safety in a playground is to have different areas of the playground designated for speciﬁc activities, for example,

for ﬁre building, so that ﬁres are not lit near wooden forts and huts.
A few rules are more useful than a long list that children donʼt remember.
If children are aware of all the rules at the playground and do not get into
trouble for rules they donʼt know about, the playground functions smoothly
and the children are barely aware that the rules exist.

What is the usual age of children attending?

Many playgrounds do not allow children under the age of ﬁve or six.
Some allow younger children, but only if they are accompanied by adults.
Children can come and go as they please. Adventure playgrounds are places
children choose to go to, not a substitute for day care. Playgrounds thathave smaller children have speciﬁc areas for those children that do not haveolder children or tools. At the Adventure Playground in Berkeley, California children six and older can be dropped off for a period of three hours at
a time. Most playgrounds let children over ﬁve and six stay at the playground for the whole time the playground is open, sometimes for a fee. The
playground usually has contact information for the parents of the childrenthat attend. The playground does not take responsibility for keeping thechildren on the site.

How does the playground get insured?

In the U.S. liability is a major concern, in spite of the fact that the accident rate is lower at adventure playgrounds than it is at conventional playgrounds. Lawsuits are much more of a common practice in the U.S. than inother countries. The good news is that adventure playgrounds can be covered under the same insurance as any other part of a city parkʼs or recreation
program. The adventure playground in Berkeley, CA is covered in this way.
Roughly 3.5 million children ages 14 and under are treated for sports-related
injuries each year in the U.S. More than 200,000 children are injured eachyear on playgrounds at childcare centers, parks, and schools. Falls onto playground surfaces are a contributing factor in 70 percent of injuries requiring
hospital visits.
Many playgrounds in the U.S. are not supervised by trained staff. Adventure playgrounds have trained adults supervising the playground. They
also do not have typical “playground surfaces”; they are usually covered indirt, sand, and sometimes gravel to allow for vehicles to bring in supplies.
Also, the majority of activity at an adventure playground involves building,construction, and talking. Children do climb to particular heights at adven-Get Involved! How to start an adventure
playground in your community
Visit http://adventureplaygrounds.hampshire.edu for more info

Building/Creating Materials: most anything can be used for building• Wood• 2x4, 4x4, 2x6ʼs are essential.
• Use pallets, plywood, and other wood in moderation• Do not use: press board, pressure treated wood, or old painted wood
• Tires- all kinds, racing tires are good for hinges and other uses that require
ﬂexible rubber• Bricks/Cement Blocks• Foam
• Stones• Various cloth and carpeting• Cardboard • Branches• Paint-permanent/water-based• Furniture • Rope/string/wireAnimals at the playground: some playgrounds have animals and the children
take care of and feed the animals.
Including:• Chickens • Rabbits • Guinea pigs • SheepGames/Activity Materials: At some playgrounds children can borrow equipment to ride around the park or play a game of hockey in the playground. They
can also use equipment and supplies indoors.
• Roller skates• Tricycles• Hockey equipment• Bicycles• Playing Cards• Paper/Cardboard• Soccer balls• Board Games• Pens/Markers/Crayons/Paint

Playworkers should be thinking about what is in the best interest of theyoung people attending the playground and what each of them would need inorder to enable them to get the most out of the playground. Playworkers should
be respectful of children and their capacities to do a lot independent of adults.
Opening hours:• should be open after school 3 or 4 days a week for a 3 or 4 hours per day• open on weekends and school vacations for longer periods• some playgrounds are closed on Sundays and Mondays
Borrowing equipment & rules:
Most playgrounds have some rules concerning the borrowing of equipment.
Some playgrounds have the children give in a bike key, or a playground ID to
make sure that the tool is returned. The playgrounds maintain a list of all children in the playground and as children borrow and bring back tools, they checkthe tool off the list.
Tools:• Hammers- brightly colored or marked for retrieval• Hand saws- the shorter variety• Nails-non-galvanized (easier to put in and take out), varying lengths• Shovels- for children to dig, to distribute sand in fall areas• Wheelbarrow- for carrying tools and supplies• Tool boxes: for children, check out tools in toolboxes

Activity ideas: try simple projects using natural and found materials.
Stick butbread:“ Adventure playgrounds were not the invention of an individual,of the ingenuity of children everywhere who have
•
Wrap
dough
forsites,bread aroundstick like a areassnake. for their play.”alwaystheandexciting
never-never land of dump grounds, construction
and anature’s
Acquiringchosenmaterials
equipment:• Hold over ﬁre for 10 minutes or so. Ingredients: Flour, yeast, water.
Materials can be obtained from local businesses and organizations. Send
-Joe Frost, a professor of education
letters and follow-up phone calls asking businesses to donate time/money/supWater play:plies. Contractors and other people doing construction are often happy to• Create a changeable water funneling system moving down a hill
hear that they can give you their left over wood for free. It usually costs them
• Use rocks, wood stoppers and shovels and sand to change the ﬂow of water
money to dump their wood.
• Make a mud slide, put a hose on top of hill, let ground get muddy, slide away!
Hiring Staff:
The playworker watches over the playground but is not intrusive. Her or
his job is to meet children where they are in the process of building, playing
etc. and to help and support them where they need it. As Jack Lambert, a British playworker said, “I try to be all things to all children.” They are an ally toyoung people. It is useful if a playworker is a friend and has the practical skills
necessary, such as carpentry, to help children build.

Tunnels/Digging:• Make a hole through the hill, tunnels, and underground crawl/walkways fromone fort to another• Make a maze out of wood, with a covered roof
Camping:• Have an overnight at the playground or go somewhere else. Children cansleep in their own forts/houses.

Cooper, Clare. Adventure Playground: creative play in an urban setting and a potential
focus for community involvement. Berkeley: Center for Planning and Development
Research, 1970.
Frost, Joe L. Childrenʼs Play and Playgrounds. Austin: Playscapes International,
1983.
---. Play and Playscapes. New York: Delmar
Publishers Inc., 1992.
Frost, Joe L.; Wortham, Sue C.; Reifel,
Stuart. Play and Child Development. Ohio:
Merrill Prentice Hall, 2001.
Ginsberg, Oliver. “Adventure playgrounds
and city farms in Europe and what they contribute to sustainable urban development.”
Bund der Jugendfarmen und Aktivspielplätze e. V. August 2000. BDJA. April
2004.<http://www.bdja.org/oli>
Hayward, D. Geofrey; Rothenberg, Marilyn;
Beasley, Robert R. (June 1974). Childrenʼsplay and urban playground environments: A
comparison of Traditional, Contemporary,and Adventure Playground Types. Environment and Behavior, 6(2), 131-168.
Lambert, Jack and Jenny Pearson. Adventure Playgrounds: a personal account of aplay leaderʼs work. London: Jonathan Cape,
1974.
Vance, Bill. A guide to the development of
the Adventure Playground. San Francisco:
American Adventure Play Association,
1976.
---. U.S. Adventure Playground Report. San
Francisco: American Adventure Play Association, 1979.

-Jonathan Ziyp, 19, a volunteer, has been coming to Kinerparadijs since he was 10 years old

Bengtsson, Arvid. Adventure playgrounds.
London: Crosby Lockwood Staples, 1973.

“Making a ﬁre and building are the best things to do! When you start to build a hut, you canʼt see theshape of it, but after a few months you see a wonderful hut, standing on the top of a mountain.”

Appendix-References

Web sites-

International Links

IPA [International Play Association] “Promoting the Childʼs Right to Play”
http://www.ipaworld.org/
Study of Adventure playgrounds and city
farms in Europe and what they contributeto sustainable urban development
http://www.bdja.org/oli/index.html
Lectures and documentation from the conference: Adventure Playgrounds and City
Farms for the 21st Century [Berlin 1999]
http://www.bdja.org/anima.htm

Adventure Playgrounds &Organizations
CanadaCanadaʼs Ofﬁce of Urban AgricultureRediscovering the Animation Playground
http://www.cityfarmer.org/AnimationPlayground.html

Germany

AKiB- a federation of adventure playgrounds
and childrenʼs farms in Berlin
http://www.akib.de/english/english.html
BDJA- Association of Adventure Playgrounds and City Farms in Germany
http://www.bdja.org/english.htm
Japan
IPA Japan- Japanʼs international play association
http://www.ipa-japan.org

Switzerland

Speux [Spiel und Jeux-Play and Play]Speux is the union of adventure playgrounds
and childrenʼs programs.
http://www.speux.ch/
Robi-Spiel Aktionen- a Swiss Organizationof Adventure Playgrounds in Basel
http://www.robi-spiel-aktionen.ch

United Kingdom
Kidsactive (formerly HAPA-Handicapped
Adventure Playground Association)
http://www.kidsactive.org.uk/
London Play- “for every child in London tohave high quality, accessible, and inclusive
play opportunities.”
www.londonplay.org.uk/
Playlink - Playlink supports local groups increating play opportunities for young people
http://www.playlink.org.uk/
Fairplay- promoting the childʼs right toplay
http://www.arunet.co.uk/fairplay/home.htm
Intro to Adventure Playgroundshttp://www.arunet.co.uk/fairplay/facts/adplay.htm

About the Author:

Lia Sutton graduated from Hampshire College witha Bachelors of Arts in May 2005. This booklet wasa part of her senior independent research project,
Kinderparadijs (Childrenʼs Paradise): Advancing theAdventure Playground Movement. Sutton is a photographer and has photographed adventure playgrounds
in California, The Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. She has worked at the Adventure Playground in
Berkeley, CA and volunteered at Kinderparadijs in The
Netherlands. She is interested in starting more adventure playgrounds in the United States and in making
more people knowledgeable about adventure playgrounds and their importance.

United States

Projects for Public Spaces (PPS)- dedicated to creating and sustaining public places
that build communities
http://www.pps.org/
Childrenʼs Environments ResearchGroup (CERG)- provides a link between
research and design, policy, and programs
that improve environments for children
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/che/cerg/
Natural Learning Initiative- promotes theimportance of the natural environments forchildren
http://www.naturallearning.org
Adventure Playground- Open Year-RoundBerkeley, California
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/marina/marinaexp/adventplgd.html
Adventure Playground- Open Summers
Huntington Beach, California
http://www.ci.huntington-beach.ca.us/CityDepartments/comm_services/facilities/
Huntington_Central_Park/Adventure_Playground.cfm

Thanks:All the kids and adults I spoke with and photographed at all the playgrounds.
Everyone at Kinderparadijs Purmerend- Juul, Jooron, Ed, Alissa, Priscilla, Anthe,
Jonathan, Stephan, Arie, Max, Paul and his daughter, Dennis, Dennis & Rob, Lotte,Thomas, Miro & Kit, Sander, and all the other kids, sorry I forgot your names; Beate,
Hagga and the staff of playground at Colorado Park, Frankfurt; John and the young
people at Riederwald, Frankfurt; Dani at Holzwurm and the children, parents andstaff of Holzwurm; Leto at Seraﬁnʼs Garden; Robi Voltamatte- Martin, Robi HorburgChristine and the children; Urs and Nina-at the Playground in Bern, Everyone in at the
A.P. Berkeley, CA- Julia, Stephino, Illya, Richard, Zev, Paul, Denise, Patty
Joe Frost, Roger Hart, Robin Moore.
You are all important to the future of the adventure playground movement and I
have learned from you all.
Mom, Gaby, Millie, Matt, Dave, Marie Louise, Seraina, Urs, Laura
My committee: Myrna Breitbart, Kane Stewart, Colin Twitchell
Robert Seydel & Will Ryan
All my friends at Hampshire and at home.
And everyone else, you know who you are.