Playground Design

When designing a playground, be it in a school or in a park, there are quite a few regulations and guidelines to follow. One of them is the Fall Zone, and it refers to the clearance all climbable play structures must have around them. In Canada, this clearance is typically 1.83m [6ft.], and within this area no hard surfaces, structures, site furnishings, or hardscape elements are allowed for safety reasons. This means that the placement of play features in a playground often becomes a challenging geometrical puzzle. Even though the area dedicated for a playground may seem generous, the effective play space is actually much smaller due to various safety regulations, and designers are tasked with making the most out of it.

This might be surprising to some, but it takes many hours of design before a playground is designed in a way that is safe, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. To me, playgrounds are a good example of a space that is seen as fairly simple when already built, but it often takes a great deal of problem solving to make it look this way.