While nerding out on metal fabrication*, it struck me that if Richard Serra's awesome, sobering metal sculptures were twisted just a bit, they would become inclined planes that one could walk on, like this great playground by Mitsuru Senda:
from Mitsuru Senda's Design of Children's Play Environments
Senda's work focuses on interactive play spaces that he calls "Circular Play Systems", advocating for adventurous playgrounds full of discovery and "dizziness" (skewed reality situations, as pictured above) in the face of the homogenized, cookie-cutter, post-and-deck play pieces that have been popping up for decades. Championing healthy growth through risk-taking ("Insistence of Safety Inhibits Children at Play"), Senda has studied and analyzed children's play, building playgrounds which enact his theories.
I am convinced that the theory that children are geniuses is what has deprived children of their play and playgrounds in cities. "Children do not need playgrounds. They will turn any place into a playground." This is the line of thought which has allowed woods and open spaces to be converted into buildings in the course of urban development and has provided the excuse for taking away children's playgrounds. ... We must secure, plan, and design environments in cities where children can display this genius. -- Mitsuru Senda
I created post and deck system to fulfill a specific design requirement … play equipment for elementary schools. The concept of attaching play events to linked platforms was intended to take advantage of the characteristic style of play for 1st through 3rd graders; games of chase and tag.
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In those days we talked a lot about "play environments." These were envisioned as diverse spaces with all manner of play opportunities. We did not intend that post and deck play structures become the total play space, which is now sadly the rule.
typical post-and-deck playground
Senda classifies stages of play. "Chase and tag" would be "social play".
Skewed perspectives: The Shelby NC City Park had an TALL old slide at the top of a hill (left), adding to the thrill of sliding down its steepness. This felt like the highest point in sight. On a recent trip to visit family, I realized that it had been replaced with a small, fenced-in post-and-deck playground. When I passed by the playground a kid was sitting on the rubber groundcover crying.
Richard Serra's sculpture "Sequence", on display in Germany. via NYTimes
*Serra's works are often made of weathering steel. People more often call it Cor-Ten (corporate product name) or A606 (ASTM codified name)... scary. The specific alloy used oxidizes and forms a protective surface on the steel's surface, instead of rusting away like untreated mild steel. How great would it be to mold steel into fluid forms like this to climb on? Serra's intensive and expensive structures, once engineered, are fabricated by EEW Pickhan Heavy Fabrication of Germany. Check out their machinery, its on a colossal scale... flame cutters that can handle 12" thick x 36' x 60' steel, 3000 ton presses 32' wide... Weathering steel isn't easy to source in the New Orleans region, possibly because folks are worried it will not remain intact as long in the humid environment... Atlanta's Omni arena was imploded after its weathering steel roof became overweathered:
a short film by Richard Serra, which seems quite relevant to the dumbing-down of recreational environments:
