Archinect - News

Park named after Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch now open in Brooklyn

2013-05-03T16:52:00-04:00

This Brooklyn Heights playground is named for Adam Yauch, an artist, a filmmaker, an activist, and one of Brooklyn’s most influential musicians. Most famous as ‘MCA’ of the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Beastie Boys, Yauch grew up playing in this playground, then named State Street Park and later Palmetto Playground, as a child.

“Born and bred in Brooklyn the U.S.A./
They call me Adam Yauch but I’m M.C.A.”
- “No Sleep Til Brooklyn,” The Beastie Boys

NYC Parks & Rec. announced today that Adam Yauch Park, named after the Beastie Boys' late MCA, is now open.

BOARD wins the Second Prize in the "Krajicek Playground Competition"

2012-12-03T13:40:00-05:00

The Rotterdam-based Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design (BOARD) won the Second Prize with its entry entitled “Het hergebruikte appartement” (“The Recycled Apartment”) in the open competition for “Sustainable Krajicek Playgrounds”.

We took the wish of the competition’s organizers, the Richard Krajicek Foundation (RKF) – to involve the surrounding buildings as closely as possible in the design of the playground - literally and picked a typical apartment from a building in the neighborhood, enlarged it five times, and used it as the ground plan for the new playground. This proposal was based on the conviction that reproducing an apartment from the neighbourhood would make it easier for the inhabitants of the area to identify with the new playground, which would eventually lead to a socially sustainable place and a strong sense of belonging among people.

Are Playgrounds Too Safe?

2012-11-26T15:42:00-05:00

Some child-development experts and parents say decades of dumbed-down playgrounds, fueled by fears of litigation, concerns about injury and worrywart helicopter parents, have led to cookie-cutter equipment that offers little thrill. The result, they say, is that children are less compelled to play outside, potentially stunting emotional and physical development and exacerbating a nationwide epidemic of childhood obesity.

The junk playground model

2012-07-04T20:21:00-04:00

It's curious how much the ethos of the adventure playground chimes with the language of a new era of design today: a "participatory" process, recycled materials, an adaptive product. It doesn't sound like the 1940s. But equally valuable is the zone of exception that the adventure playground represents in the city

Justin McGuirk asks, what happened to playgrounds that give children space? He goes on to examine two recent examples of temporary playgrounds in London by Erect Architecture and the Rockwell Group. Mr. McGuirk also refers to the role of Danish architect Carl Theodor Sorensen and Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck in developing the model of playgrounds as a tool in the development of childhood creativity.

CMYplay by A\V Studio

2012-04-20T17:35:00-04:00

Browsing the Work Status Updates on our sister site Archinect, we recently came across an image of the intriguing structure CMYplay, a proposal of A\V Studio, originally designed for the 3Dimensional Front competition. A\V Studio is an on-going design collaboration between Adam Hostetler of New York City and Virginia Melnyk of Beijing, China.

Find more of Virginia Melnyk's work on her Archinect profile.