The innovative design rejects preconceived notions of a playground in favour of a more natural approach to play. Playscape returns to simple childhood pleasures, encouraging engagement with natural surroundings and taking acceptable levels of risk.

The site forms part of a small yet popular local community park, but offered only old worn-out equipment and was little used. The space is surrounded on two sides by residential roads and overlooked by a housing block on the other side. It has full public access at all times. The scheme aimed to create an innovative, high-quality play space that will help other councils, landscape architects and funders to see the play possibilities a landscape architect can create using their professional training and imagination.

Local young people were involved in an engaged design process through a number of activities such as ‘Paintscape’, an arts project painting the site hoardings, design workshop sessions, visits to tree nurseries, boulder quarries and other parks and play spaces.

The team responsible for the maintenance of the space was engaged in the early design stages: attending both design development and construction progress meetings fostered an understanding of the design vision, whilst embedding a genuine ownership of the space and awareness of everyday maintenance challenges. Local residents created a ‘Playscape volunteer support group’, which helps the council’s maintenance contractors with the upkeep of the space whilst reporting issues and opportunities to the park rangers.