Why safe playgrounds aren't great for kids?

If you imagine a playground, it probably looks like this. There is usually a slide, a bridge and a copper roof top. It makes it a playground and this and that. But what about this? This is not a trash can. It's called the Adventure Playground. No plastic play structures here - just old tires, wooden boards, hammers and nails. Places like this represent a controversial idea in play architecture: playgrounds should be designed to encourage children to take more risks. Now, this helicopter nightmare is the hottest new thing on American playgrounds as evidence mounts that such play is much healthier and safer for children.

They can play with very dangerous tools, take really dangerous risks and win. And it is filled with a huge confidence that is really exciting to watch. This is Marjory Allen. He was a mid-century British landscape architect and campaigner for child welfare. In 1945, he visited Copenhagen, where he met Carl Theodor Sorensen. Two years earlier, during the German occupation of Denmark, Sorensen noticed a problem: the children in his neighborhood did not use the playgrounds.

In fact, they play almost anywhere else - even construction sites and bombed out buildings. So Sorensen enclosed an empty lot in a residential building on the outskirts of Copenhagen and filled it with building materials, abandoned objects and tools. Here, children can dig, build and invent themselves. The play structures were ultimately designed by the children themselves. Sorensen called it a dirty playground - kids and parents loved it. After returning to England, Marjory Allen began to open similar playgrounds in London. And he renamed them: from trash to adventure. From there, they became a global phenomenon.

They reached Minneapolis, Boston, Toronto, Tokyo, Houston, Berkeley and Berlin. And to create these playgrounds, designers had to introduce a critical element: managed risk. In this context, risk is not the same as danger. A rotten branch is a danger when climbing a tall tree: the danger is unexpected. But how high you climb is a risk: it is controllable and requires an active decision. You can divide the elements of controlled risk into six categories: heights, speed, tools, dangerous elements, rough and tumble elements, and the ability to get lost or lose your way. And a good adventure playground contains a mix of these. Designers also focus on the allocation of space.

For children to feel like they are discovering things on their own, parents need to stay away. This could mean installing a physical barrier - or, for example, providing toilets, cafes and seating so that parents' experience is not left behind. Finally, designers fill it with loose parts. These are manipulable objects – boards, barrels, bricks and tools – that encourage risky play. All these design elements are based on the idea that children respond well to serious treatment: when presented with dangerous objects with a serious functional purpose, they react cautiously and make more attempts. But when they offer too safe, static space, they often seek dangerous emotions that the built environment does not offer, which can lead to more injuries than risky play on adventure playgrounds.

In the United States, a litigious culture of playground design means that overly safe playgrounds are the norm. And the design philosophy is focused on reducing height, movement and hard materials. It did not improve the playgrounds. When Marjory Allen visited American playgrounds in 1965, she called them "the administrator's heaven and the children's hell." But adventure playgrounds have recently begun to gain popularity in the United States—perhaps thanks to a push to introduce unstructured play. And building them comes with its fair share of criticism. "They make children play with hammer and nails - it's not an adventure, it's just work. They trick children into building their own playground.

Adventure playgrounds have disadvantages: they are quite ugly, take up a lot of space and require resources to staff and maintain. And as with all playgrounds, there is a risk of injury. But the philosophy behind risky play can help kids live better lives. First, riskier playgrounds encourage more activity. A study comparing London playgrounds, where risky play is popular, with those in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York found that children using London playgrounds were up to 18 percent more physically active. London playgrounds were cheaper and had fewer injuries.

And several studies have shown that children who engage in risky play have better risk perception, creativity and self-esteem. A playground is one of the only types of architecture designed specifically for children.

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