2024-05-02T04:27:25-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149993202/matter-design-s-five-fields-play-structure-reinvents-the-purpose-of-play Mackenzie Goldberg 2017-02-21T21:01:00-05:00 >2017-04-10T14:21:50-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/hh/hhksloebkzr7gl7g.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>The intent is to not ask what the structure does, but how it imagines new possibilities</p></em><br /><br /><p>It has been said that play is the exultation of the possible. The Five Fields Play Structure then, is the fullest realization of this theory on play. <a href="http://archinect.com/matterdesign" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Matter Design</a>, an interdisciplinary design practice founded in 2008 by Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee, collaborated with <a href="http://www.frsch.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FR|SCH</a>, an architecture and design studio founded by Michael Schanbacher and Kerri Frick, to design this&nbsp;structure that proudly has no purpose. Instead, the form becomes a blank canvas meant for childish exploration and the cultivation of their imagination.</p><p>The design resists any directive and rejects specified, singular usage. Twenty-foot tall vertical elements seem to contribute to the structure at one moment, but then extend into the landscape. Doors and stairs, while standard architectural elements, are rethought to lead to nowhere and color is used as a suggestive rather than a clear label on entries and key moments. Another prominent design strategy was to provide multiple means of access to any location. These ...</p> https://archinect.com/news/article/52961595/the-junk-playground-model Nam Henderson 2012-07-04T20:21:00-04:00 >2012-07-08T10:27:07-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/uf/uf9jyodjg7a17jjb.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>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</p></em><br /><br /><p> Justin McGuirk asks, what happened to playgrounds that give children space? He goes on to examine two recent examples of&nbsp;temporary playgrounds in London by&nbsp;Erect Architecture and the Rockwell Group. Mr.&nbsp;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.</p>