A new natural playspace in Subiaco

Subiaco Theatre Gardens Natural Playspace

The Nature Play Solutions team was pleased to see our most recent public open space project launched in early October.

The Theatre Gardens is a district park in Subiaco, bounded by Bagot, Hensman and Hamersley roads. As a district level park, it is larger in size, provides a range of amenities and attracts local residents as well as visitors from outside Subiaco. The old playground was a simple, traditional style plastic playground. The new playspace is located on the northern side of the park, closest to Bagot Road.

The Old Playground

Throughout December 2013 and January 2014, the City of Subiaco invited the community to provide feedback to determine the key elements to be included in the new playspace and inform the development of the concept design. The City’s Playspace Strategy provided the framework for the basis of community engagement in playspace planning and design in parks and public green spaces within the City. You can read about the Strategy here.

The project was tendered on a design and construct basis with the key points of the project brief calling for:

• an environment which supports inclusion and participation;
• choices in the types of activities that interest children of a range of ages and development stages;
• cognitive and imaginative play opportunities as well as physical active play;
• opportunities for people to meet and play together;
• sensory qualities which provide interest to children, e.g. sensory trails and activities;
• a comfortable physical environment, e.g. shade, shelter, winter, sun;
• appropriate risks and challenges, as well a reasonable degree of safety;
• a combination of built and natural elements, e.g. cubbies amongst vegetation, sand, logs and spatial qualities which enhance activities, e.g. partial enclosures, or a sense of elevation;
• a balance between fast and slow; light and shade, loose materials and fixed equipment, noisy and quiet spaces, smoothness and texture, enclosed and open spaces, opportunities to move up and down;
• cater for the parents and carers as well as children;
• linked to a theme to provide increased opportunity for play, and to act as a link between elements of the existing creek system play area; and
• amenities which are easy and comfortable to use.

The playspace design also needed to consider the preservation and improvement of the existing adjacent vegetation.

Design and Construction

The Nature Play Solutions design team, led by Senior Landscape Architect, Wendy Seymour collaborated with the City to develop a concept design and the City then provided the community with a number of opportunities for feedback and comment on the proposed design to ensure it met the community's needs.

Construction commenced in June 2014 and was undertaken by our in-house construction team, in collaboration with our design team. The City of Subiaco’s Parks Development team was the client representative overseeing the works. Materials from the previous play equipment were recycled where possible, such as moving and/or upgrading existing park benches and scrap metal was diverted for recycling.

Materials in either raw form or with a minimal amount of processing were used extensively throughout the playspace, including natural jarrah bush poles, rough sawn jarrah timber, granite boulders, gravel surfacing and pinebark mulch.

The Result

Important considerations within the design process were; ensuring that the playspace sits gently in the surrounding landscape, that adequate and appropriate challenge was provided for children, and that children of varying ability were provided for. Inclusivity was important and was given particular thought and attention, while ensuring as natural a space as possible. The combination of these considerations has produced a result whereby children with differing abilities can have fun and play together.

The result of this process is a playspace that incorporates natural elements and allows for imaginative and creative, reflective and challenging play opportunities. The playspace includes a tight rope walk, water and sand play trays, boulder climb, stilts, balancing beams, basket swing, cubbies and even a puppet theatre with wooden 'curtains.'

The community is showing a lot of interest in visiting the natural playspace, which was officially launched by the City of Subiaco Mayor on Wednesday October 1.

Mayor Heather Henderson said: "The new play facility is spectacular. Children are encouraged to embrace natural play, with organic elements such as water, sand and trees used in the design."

"Theatre Gardens is already a popular spot for the community and visitors to Subiaco, and with the addition of this fantastic new play area for the kids, I imagine we'll see lots of families enjoying the facilities as we head into warmer weather."

The new playspace is suitable for children to enjoy playing in a creative, challenging and stimulating natural environment.

What is play?

Play is a concept that’s difficult to define, because it will look a little different each time a child engages in it. A useful way to understand play is as ‘child-led’ behaviour. The key elements commonly used to

describe play are that it must be:

• freely chosen,
• personally directed, and
• intrinsically motivated. 

Freely chosen

Freely chosen play refers to the time, place, and level of participation in play, more than the content of the play. In schools, there are limitations to freely chosen play as the time to play is set by the school. However, within the play time provided it’s up to the child whether they choose to engage in something we would call play or not. Once we compel a child to take part in an activity, game etc. it ceases to be play and becomes something else. As play specialists, we don’t attach any value judgements to this shift. However, if our goal is to enable play, we try to be aware that the more we stray from allowing the freedom to choose, the less likely it is that the activity we have provided is play.

Personally directed

Personally directed play refers more to the content than the opportunity for play. Play is not an activity; it is a process by which the child discovers the complexity of their relationship with the material, internal, social and cultural spheres of their lives. This process of discovery – reaction and adjustment – is completely personal and therefore must be directed by the person for whom it is relevant. This is where the idea of agency is important. 

The value of play is not ‘what is achieved’, created, or accomplished, but the relationship between what happened and the child's part in it. How did the world react to the child being an agent of their own experience? How did the child react to the world’s reaction to their agency? What adjustment took place in the child's body, mind, cognitive development as a result of their self-created experience? How does the child develop their next move as a result of what they experienced?

Play is the creation of personal primary experience and as play unfolds it can only be play if it unfolds in a totally unique way for each child, and responds to the totally unique directions in which the child wishes to explore.

The role of the adult in play is not to direct play but enrich, prepare, resource, facilitate, sometimes guide, illustrate, sometimes negotiate and above all observe and intervene when most appropriate, especially when keeping play within socially acceptable norms and 'safe enough' boundaries.

Intrinsically motivated

If the first aspect of play is about opportunity and the second about content, this third aspect of play is about reason. What is the reason for play?

The answer is: play itself! Children have an immense innate biological drive and capacity for play. Evolution does not waste time or energy, and our progress as a species has been down to our ability to imagine the impossible, explore every avenue, questions every possibility and create the uncreated. Children are intrinsically motivated to do this. If we as adults try to introduce other motivations, winning, making 'the best thing,' making children thinner, healthier or better behaved, we misunderstand the core nature of play as something that comes at its heart from the child. We do not need to know what they are doing, why they are doing it or what they are gaining from it. It is really none of our business and far too complex for us to understand.

That’s the goal to aim for: Excellent opportunities for children to engage in play. Fortunately, all the other benefits do come: health and physical development, social and emotional development, among a plethora of others; however, we let these benefits just occur, rather than pushing for them as the focus, and the focus of my work as a play advocate is to ensure the best play possible is provided for, because this is what children NEED.

Our guest blogger is Michael Follett, Director of the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) program. Michael is coming to Perth in September to complete our training in the OPAL program, so we can comprehensively support schools in their play provision. You can find out more about OPAL at www.outdoorplayandlearning.co.uk

We will be hosting a free talk by Michael for all interested principals, teachers and parents who may like to learn more about the OPAL program. This free talk will be held on Wednesday 10th September, from 4.30-6pm at a venue to be announced  Refreshments will be provided. Please register your interest for catering purposes at opal@natureplaysolutions.com.au.