Marc Worner makes the point that, although clients are always adults, it’s worth keeping in mind many customers have kids who will hopefully also enjoy the spaces created for them.
All kids play. It’s an essential part of childhood and growing up. In backyards they learn to develop social, physical and emotional skills. To provide kids with this environment, a play space should incorporate areas for quiet, natural, creative, active and stimulating play.
So when discussing play spaces for a clients’ children, consider the following:
• Size of the space
• Ease of supervision
• The age of the existing users
• Possible future family members now just a twinkle in the eye
• Access and suitability for those less able, both young and old, and
• Try to match existing design elements to reduce the impact on the budget (if there are mature trees providing shade, or embankments or natural slopes for proposed slides, for instance).
Think back to when you played as a kid and what you got up to: ball games, riding your bike, playing in a sand pit, or taking tea in a cubby house. These early childhood activities never change, despite the electronic age in which we live.
Plant operator
Deciduous trees play a significant role in any playground. Their shade can reduce temperatures by as much as 10 degrees in summer, and they provide the warmth of the sun to those same areas in winter after losing their leaves. They reduce glare, act as windbreaks, and can be used as an educational tool.
Plants can also be used to create private, hidden spaces. On slopes, plants reduce erosion. Kids with developmental issues are especially responsive to plants which provide them with a myriad of amazing scents, textures, forms, colours and even sounds.
For the best plants to use, and their positioning, contact the nearest professional horticulturalist through aih.org.au. They can also help avoid installing any poisonous and thorny plants, or those that affect the many children with asthma.
TIP: when deciding where a playground should be located, remember the arc of the sun is lower in the winter months.
Existing assets
Wonders can be achieved in a budget-friendly way with skilful use of the land.
Cut-and-fill excavation can give good results. That is, mounds and holes can be so useful. Digging holes or patches allowing digging give kids another medium to explore, encouraging imaginative and constructive play.
Mounds are my favourite playground ‘tool’ because they cost so little to construct.
They have the potential to provide so many hours of fun and allow adults and children to interact really well. They give a three-dimensional aspect to an area that may be otherwise flat, and can give a child the feeling of being the king or queen of the castle to view the world from a different level. Mounds can also be crawled over safely by babies, can be used to ‘hide’ behind, or for sitting and lying on.
It’s best to construct play-area mounds with a 1-in-3 slope for easy access, any mowing of grass you might install, planting, the reduced possibility of erosion, and to ensure they’re great for rolling down. So, if you decide to build a mound with a one-metre top, and you want it a metre high, based on these gradients, it will need to be seven metres in diameter.
TIP: It’s a good idea to have a landing site about one metre wide atop your mound.
What about adding steps of recycled, non-steel-belt radial tyres, or sound pipes made from 100mm PVC stormwater pipe embedded at different angles. Imagine thenoises the big kids could make yelling down
those pipes!
Maybe they become peep holes given the right angle? Maybe a slippery dip at the top?
It’s all up to your imagination. Contact the professional industry body representing landscapers in your state for lots of good advice and help.
True grit
No kids play area is complete without a shaded sandpit.
A standard size is about one square metre per child; the sand depth should be at least 500mm with about 150mm of gravel or recycled concrete separated by Geotech fabric to assist with drainage. Use the smallest grains of sand possible and ensure there are no sharp edges to the pit’s retaining walls. Also, make sure it can be covered when not in use.
TIP: Sandpits are best sited against a fence or in a corner to avoid them being used as thoroughfares and disturbing the younger ones at play.
A winding path of different textures around and in among the playground features can be so much fun for toddlers because of the different sensory experiences. ‘Speed’ bumps can be incorporated with corrugated iron set into concrete. Exposed aggregate, H4 treated-pine sleepers butted up to each other, wet-pour rubber paving, timber decking mounted flush and crushed granite all offer a different sensory experience for the little ones.
TIP: gentle gradients at intervals along the path will also add further interest and toddlers will learn agility and gain strength.
Construction of a wider track up to 1500mm will also allow wheelchair-bound children to easily enjoy the ride.
Incorporate waypoints like a cubby house so role plays can be carried out.
Safety is always the priority
Now we’ve considered the physical landscape, let’s look at the equipment.
There are a number of safety considerations for play equipment, such as its design, construction, installation and maintenance; all of which can be sorted by visiting the Standards Australia website at standards.com.au.
If quoting to install a playground in a preschool facility, primary school or day-care centre, utilise the excellent information available from the Department of Education and Training in your state.
Our first and last priority is to consider the safety of children. We should always think about what can happen when kids have an accident, which is a certainty.
Playground-related injuries are the most common cause of admission to hospital for children aged 5-9 years, and 28% of injuries occur when kids fall from a height greater than one metre.
I believe all playground equipment with a free-fall height greater than half a metre should have soft-fall zones – in backyards, too. It’s already mandatory in public spaces. The soft-fall material must comply with AS/NZS 4422:1996.
The space should be free of other equipment and obstacles onto which a child could fall. The safe-fall zones apply in all directions around a piece of equipment where a fall is possible. It should cover about two metres underneath and around that equipment. Ensure subsoil drainage is installed, and remember to retain it all with a border which in itself is not a hazard.
AS/NZS 4486:1997 provides up-to-date information on the installation, inspection, maintenance and replenishment of soft-fall material.
TIP: Any concrete footings should be at least 200mm below ground level, covered with sand or soil to ground level, and that covered with a minimum depth of 250mm of soft-fall material.
momentscatcher/stock. adobe.com
Trampolines are usually a risky business in any play area. So think about sinking it flush with its surrounds to lessen the likelihood of injury when a child falls off. This also allows you to exercise some more landscaping skills surrounding the trampoline with impact-absorbing material. Make sure you cover all the springs and steel frame with safety pads.
TIP: Always think about sharp edges; corners; crush points (moving parts in chains which might crush little fingers, for instance); trip hazards like tree roots, tree stumps, rocks, concrete footings and garden borders; protrusions and projections like bolt ends and hooks.
NB: As small children’s heads are larger than their bodies, entrapment is another possible injury which must be considered when installing play equipment.
Head entrapment refers to a space into which a child can fall feet first but through which their head cannot pass, leaving them hanging with a potential for strangulation. If a child’s head is trapped, he or she needs to be able to support his or her body weight with their feet on the ground. So, ensure any enclosed spaces are larger than 125mm and smaller than 230mm. Put another way, any space between 125mm and 230mm is an entrapment hazard and should be eliminated.
TIP: an easy test to apply for entrapment is by using a 375ml soft drink can which is 125mm long and a 1.25L soft drink bottle which is 230mm long. All gaps and spaces that will accept the can should also accept the bottle, both in any orientation. If the can fits through but not the bottle, it’s a potential strangulation point which should be eliminated.
Guard rails pose another threat to a child’s safety for similar reasons.
TIP: Handrails of between 20mm and 30mm diameter on steps, stairways and ramps help little ones safely negotiate their way.
Looking ahead
Inform clients that this construction is relatively temporary as children grow up so fast. Offer clients free advice as to what can be built in that space in five years’ time. They’ll appreciate your forward thinking, and you’ll have another quote in due course.