Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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You are on the [Brave New World] page of folder [Playgrounds (Media)]
For the cover page of this folder go to the Brave new world
From the Dutch Bernard Van Leer Foundation:
After five decades of investing in early childhood development, the Bernard van Leer Foundation is entering a new phase where we believe the major challenge is the transition to scale. Plenty of ideas to improve the youngest children’s health, nutrition, protection and learning have proven their worth in small-scale projects – but.......how do we effectively reach hundreds of thousands or millions of children?
From Meghan Talarowski, research funded by the Rand Corporation, on London playgrounds (Jan 2018):
In 2015, we visited 45 playgrounds in London and selected 16 to study, over a 6 month period. We collected data on over 18,000 people, which included age, gender, ethnicity, and activity levels. We then compared this data to the National Study of Neighborhood Parks, focusing on San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, cities with population densities similar to London. As many of the London playgrounds were significantly larger than those in the US cities, the comparison list was narrowed to 8 playgrounds in each location that were of similar size (.25-.75 acres) and population density (50,000-175,000 people in 1 mile radius).
We found that the London playgrounds, with fewer “off the shelf” components, more unique design elements, and a diversity of play surfaces, had 53% more visitors and 16-18% higher physical activities levels in children and teens (P<.05) than the more traditional post and platform playgrounds in the US.
....Observations occurred from end of April-early June 2015, from 8am-7pm every day of the week except for Fridays. Five to ten second video sweeps, recorded via IPhone, were taken at defined areas within the playgrounds. The videos were assessed using the System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) to document apparent age, gender, ethnicity, and physical activity. This assessment led to the categorization of use and behavior of 18,142 people. The data was then compared to the National Study of Neighborhood Parks (NSNP) by the RAND Corporation, focusing on New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We used Geographic Information System (GIS) in conjunction with U.S. and U.K. 8 census data to define population densities in the one mile area around each playground to establish comparisons.
From the same study, Megan Talarowski interviewed for Sidewalk Talk (Google's Sidewalk labs):
"At the World Economic Forum this year, the Lego Foundation, IKEA, Unilever, and National Geographic formed the Real Play Coalition. They make the case that our world is changing so rapidly that the workers of tomorrow need a different skillset — one that’s based on the skills you learn through play. It’s confidence, creativity, and critical thinking."