PARKS LEISURE

VOLUME 16, No. 2 WINTER 2013 Registered by Australia Post PP 232100/00045 ISSN 1446-5604

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The Trouble with Natural Playgrounds... if this is Really Better, Why is it So Hard?

By Adam Bienenstock

atural playgrounds are becoming the latest thing in cities across North America. In some cities like Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, new urban design standards are taking this one step further. That is, making a connection to nature play a citywide requirement, through urban design standards enshrined in law. Statistics and research show that benets range from lower vandalism and bullying, to higher IQs, balance, and agility scores, this trend will continue to grow. So why is it so dicult to create a natural playground in your community? We have rules and agencies to protect our citizens and reduce our liabilities, which were not created to protect nature or the nuances of child development and lifelong health and wellbeing. In much the same way that our corporations are forced to provide immediate gratication to their shareholders, we have expedited systems and tidy boxes for compliance that prevent us from considering the long term implications of our community commons on the health of our children and families. In Ontario, Canada, the CAN/CSA Z614-07, Building Codes, CPTED, AODA, Health and Safety, Day Nurseries Act, Ministry of Education, and our insurance providers all have a part to play in protecting our public institutions from liability. With this complex process, it is no surprise that we fail to recognise the adverse long term eects of our regulatory environment on our urban environment and community health. In Canada, we design playgrounds for reduced short term liability rst and long term viability second.

Even the best landscape architects do not have the nancial capacity to aord their insurance premiums if their designs were considered by the underwriter as a playstructure. To avoid this expense, they separate out any component that might be considered a playstructure under the playground safety standard, and place it all into a single nite space. Next, they spec out specic catalogued items from a single supplier who takes on the compliance specications, installation, and liability requirements for that piece. Immediately, a cohesive plan that disperses gross motor activity throughout the space, or values diversity in play - in particular unstructured play in nature - has been compromised. When standards are executed without looking at the cumulative impacts and relationships between elements of an entire design, what often results are exercises in absurdity as expressed in the built form of our environments. For example; railings and fences that visually transform spaces into veal pens, or ramps and platforms that are disconnected from any other pathway and often lead nowhere meaningful to the user. What is needed is human centered design and safety requirements that support wellbeing in its entirely, not just injury prevention. Robert Voigt, Senior Planner, Collingwood Ontario, Canada, 2011.. We need to think about long term health and start to place environment, child development, and active healthy lifestyles back at the top of our decision making hierarchy. It is time for an interdisciplinary approach and dialogue about how best to tackle the process by which we plan our cities and our community commons. Adam Bienenstock,MBA Founder and Principal Designer www.naturalplaygrounds.ca

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Australasian Parks and Leisure - Winter 2013