by Mimmi Beckman
Water, concrete and ‘speelnatuur’
The park department of the City of Örebro in Sweden has worked hard over the last few years to develop our work with playgrounds. Before we built standard playgrounds that were dominated by a handful of play equipment on a flat surface, but know we try to create rich and green playscapes that offer far more play affordances.
We were eager to see good examples of water play, and thought that the best European country to visit such places surely must be the Netherlands? So we contacted Springzaad and arranged for a study trip. And what a nice studytrip! We were inspired by many things!
The ones of us that visited the Netherlands for the first time were amazed of the multitude of canals and ditches that seemed to be, well everywhere. So much water in the fields, next to houses and in the villages and cities…
We were also impressed by the streets where cars clearly are not the first priority. Even in streets that weren’t so wide, you still had place for cycle lanes, walking lanes AND trees. The lush vegetation in front of houses, lots of trees and greenery along canals in combination with brickwork and not to high houses in Utrecht and Rotterdam made us want to live here. Such a pleasant atmosphere!
But our main focus was play… One of the places we were most impressed by was Speeldernis. What a playscape! It was so interesting to see the built water spring and creek that filled the play ponds. And it was especially interesting to hear that the water was pumped up groundwater that further down was pumped out into the canal, and also the techniques for preparing the bottom of the ponds with willow, netting and sand, so to make the ponds only knee-deep and easy to wade in.
The mud hill in Oerrr Haarzuilens Speelnatur park was another favourite! We were lucky to visit when two families were there, and so could observe the concentrated joy of four boys around 8-10 years old that played there.
It was also a wonderful to see the schoolground of the Dalton school de Margriet in full action with kids out playing during recess. A few friendly places with tree huts, rope swings, water and sand play in combination with loose parts and teachers who understand play – that’s all you need. We were amazed to see comparatively green schoolgrounds both in Rotterdam and in Nijmegen that were really small in size. The national agency for buildning in Sweden recommends that schoolgrounds have at least 30 square meters per child, otherwise keeping them green can be difficult in the long term. The good exemples we visited were much smaller than that…
We were also very interested to hear about the work of Springzaad, managing a network with many different kinds of companies and organisations, organizing many study tours, and giving courses. We see how useful that would be, and have started thinking of how something similar to Springzaad could develop in Sweden.
If you come to Sweden, make sure to stop in Örebro! We would love to hear your thoughts on some of the playspaces we’ve created in the last years. Like you, we see many advantages by building the landscape first, with topograhy, and interesting vegetation. We then try to enhance the play value by integrating some choice play equipment and adding other cretive or artful elements.
Clever – to use water in order to create a level of challenge without high height!
Lunch at the goat farm next to Oerrr Haarzuilens Speelnatur park. What a lovely place, so child friendly. We wished we had something similar in Örebro!
In the Botanical gardens of Utrecht we were very inspired be the re-use of concrete.
The play ponds in Speeldernis. A place of freedom and adventure…
Simple things can work wonders with the right staff in a schoolground. But the magic only appears when you can observe the kids while they are busy playing…
The Wednesday of the trip was situated in the east of Holland around Nijmegen.
by Pjotr Timmerman
First stop, was the primary school with Jenaplan approach ‘De Vuurvogel’ (Malden). Especially the public parc next to it, which is at the same time the schoolkids playground during breaks. No fences and gates, free accessible 24/7. This is actually the afct for all visited sites! Wonderfully created by Jan Kersten (Bureau Niche) and also participating in the discussion with the director of the school. ‘What about vandalism and security’? There is some annoying and expensive breakdown of things. Many playing/hanging around kids at the place where once pupils of the school. With a clever approach you can talk to them in a way that helps. There is always a certain percentage which isn’t reasonable at all. Social control, every half an hour, by 2 well trained kind ‘social workers’ proves to be quite (cost) effective.
After that we had a meeting at the ‘Avonturenbos’ (Groesbeek). A co-operation from State Forest (SBB) and the municipality. Play (local kids) and learning grounds (regional school classes) at the edge of this village and maintained by a voluntary ‘forester’ (73) and every week, 1 day by a team of disabled volunteers from nearby. More or less the same kind of discussion about vandalism and at this site kept save by the inhabitants of nearby flat. The basement provides a warm and safe place for the coffee breaks of the workers & their tools.
In Groesbeek we took a look at the ‘Groeske’ as well. A new (5 yrs. ago) established multifunctional parc around the small stream which once ran invisibly in a sewage canal. It’s the playground of the older kids from the school next door, playgrounds for everyone from 0-100, wadi-system for huge thunderstorms, exercise site for the elderly people from their nearby home and historical site (it provides the village it’s name).
The fourth stop was again at a primary school now with Waldorf approach ‘Meander’ (Nijmegen). A very condensed green playgrounds for 450 pupils at 1600 m2. Discussion about safety, water quality (ground water), again how to keep the place in good shape (1 million small feet a day!). Teacher Tim and housekeeper Harald answered our questions professionally! After lunch at Blixem restaurant and a break at Intratuin Malden (tulip bulbs etc) the minibus headed south for Ghent (Belgium).
