To Meghan Talarowski, play is ?so much more than just physical activity? Every kid wants to climb up the slide. Go to the nearest playground, and you?ll see children clamoring to defy gravity, following an impulse to run up inclines that leads to toddler traffic jams and exasperated parents trying to create order from chaos.
The only problem with how children play on slides, says Meghan Talarowski, a designer, researcher, and advocate who founded Philadelphia-based landscape architecture firm Studio Ludo, is that the playground?s designer didn?t see it coming.
Kids want stimulation, excitement, the thrill of knowing they could fall?not the stultifying safety of today?s playgrounds. Talarowski remembers her own early years in her hometown of Redding, California, where she spent most of her time outside building forts, climbing trees, and daring other kids to see how far they could lean out over a river without falling in. What kids definitely do not want, she says, are adult preconceptions getting in the way of their fun. ?Play isn?t as linear as we think,? says Talarowski. ?Play is so much more than just physical activity. It?s emotional support. It?s social development. I want to design spaces that support kids wherever they?re at. If they?re having a day where they want to be weird, I want to create that space.?
Talarowski?s belief that play needs an overhaul came from sitting still and observing how our parks are actually used. Playground design needs to break ou...