The 11 Most Innovative, Beautiful, and Inspired Playgrounds On The Planet

8/14/2019 The 11 Most Innovative, Beautiful, and Inspired Playgrounds on the Planet
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The 11 Most Innovative, Beautiful, and

Inspired Playgrounds on the Planet
These aren’t your average jungle gyms
By Steve Schiff (https://wanderlust.com/journal/author/steveschiff/)
This piece is from our partners at Fatherly (http://www.fatherly.com/). Want more like this? Sign up here
(https://www.fatherly.com/core/setup/sitename?type=email).
•••
This article is part of Fatherly’s first annual 25 Best U.S. Cities For Kids to Play Outside. To read the full report, click here
(https://www.fatherly.com/the-25-best-cities-for-kids-to-play-outside-1247315890.html).
As playground expert Paige Johnson says (https://www.fatherly.com/playscapes-paige-johnson-interview-1240717183.html), just

because a playground is there doesn’t mean it provides kids, parents, or communities with meaningful opportunities for play. In this country,
the local swings and slides are designed based on fear of lawyers first and penny pinching second. Actual kids-running-around-squealing-in-
delight fun usually factors in after a few more logistical headaches are avoided. The result is a nation of mostly dull play spaces, which is all
the more inexcusable when you see what a truly inspired playground looks like. These 11 masterpieces are among Johnson’s favorite
playgrounds anywhere in the world, and cribbing just a few ideas from any of them would improve whatever you kid has access to. Now
imagine a country that took play seriously enough to make them the standard (or, just go to Denmark, which pretty much already has
(http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/sightseeing/playgrounds-copenhagen)).
Darling Quarter Playscape, Sydney, Australia

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Truly unique and functional playgrounds use custom pieces to make their surrounding landscapes playable. ASPECT Studios took that
concept to the extreme by making a playground the centerpiece of Sydney’s Darling Harbor (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-
history/mid-century-modern/darling-quarter-playscape-sydney-australia-aspect-studios-2011/). Surrounded by cafes, restaurants, and
commercial office space, the playspace incorporates nature elements like streams, hills, stylized boulders, and sand. Yes, it’s dirty and
sticks to everything, but this is a list of great places to play, not great places to stay clean.
Kolle 37 Adventure Playground, Berlin, Germany
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Americans may have heard of “The Land (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/europes-adventure-playgrounds-

look-way-more-fun/284521/),” a so-called “adventure playground” that received some press last year thanks to a documentary featuring
little kids running around it with power tools. But The Land is a pretty lame example compared to the adventure playground mecca of Kolle
37 (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-design/natural-playgrounds/kolle-37-berlin-self-constructed-and-constantly-changing-1990-to-
present/), which has all the requisite shovels, hammers, saws, nails, and wood that make these places so terrifying to U.S. parents. But it
also has pottery kilns, a blacksmith forge, rabbits, guinea pigs, gardens, and a bike rental shop where the older kids can work
(https://www.fatherly.com/tag/work%20and%20money). Because it wouldn’t be Germany’s coolest playground if it wasn’t also its most
industrious.
Parc De Belleville, Paris, France
The architects behind this wood and concrete climbing course (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-design/contemporary-
design/playground-park-belleville-paris-base-2008/) built into a hillside wanted something “free-flowing and powerful,” an abstract
playhouse that’s equal parts treehouse, forest, minimalist urban interior, living room fort, boat, and castle. From the top, parents can take in
a view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance, or, you know, watch their kids. Laissez-faire and all that.
Woods of Net, Hakone, Japan
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Woods of Net (http://www.archdaily.com/39223/woods-of-net-tezuka-architects/) is half playground, half permanent installation for

artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam’s iconic hand-knit nets at the Hakone Open-Air Museum. From the outside, it looks like Willy Wonka got his
hands on a set of Lincoln Logs. Inside, well, you can hardly tell inside from outside. Tezuka Architects describe it thusly: “The space attracts
people like campfire. The children play inside of the net just as fire and parents sit around and lay on the woods.” American playgrounds
could use more fire and parents sitting around laying on the woods, right?
Parque Gulliver, Valencia, Spain
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Set your kid loose in Parque Gulliver (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-art/playable-sculpture/parque-gulliver-valencia-spain-1990/)

to run, jump, and climb all over a recreation of the most iconic scene from Gulliver’s Travels. Watching your kid scale this giant — complete
with ropes, ladders, slides, nets, hidden steps to different levels, and a pair of enormous feet — should be a welcome change of pace from
your crazy lilliputian using you as their personal jungle gym.
City Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
America might only have one representative on this list, but it’s arguably the one with the deepest roots in the urban environment it inhabits.
This 600,000 square-foot playground (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-art/playable-sculpture/city-museum-st-louis-bob-cassilly-
1997/) is housed in a former International Shoe Company and made entirely out of reclaimed materials from within the city’s borders, so
your kid can climb an old construction crane or, with apologies to George Carlin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxlE32ikHzo), get
on a plane. Actually, they can get on one of 2 planes—this place is insane.
Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo, Japan
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You know what kids get tired of real quick? Prefab plastic slides. You know what keeps their attention? Climbable pyramids and rock
dragons (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-art/playable-sculpture/showa-kinen-park-tokyo-fumiaki-takano-1993/), and a fog forest
that rolls in and out every 15 minutes, and marshmallow-like jumping mounds where bare feet are required. What? You don’t have one of
those down the street?
Schulberg Playground, Wiesbaden, Germany
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The pentagon shape of the climbing net that surrounds this play space (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-design/contemporary-
design/schulberg-playground-wiesbaden-germany-annabau-2011/) references the shape of the historic city it inhabits, while its
construction complements the local architecture and winds through existing trees. All of which is to say it’s markedly different from the
penned-in, “play here, not there” space of your local playground.
Nishi Rokugo Koen Tire Park, Tokyo, Japan
You might have had a tire swing, but the kids in Tokyo have a tire Godzilla, tire robot, and tire spaceship (http://www.play-
scapes.com/correspondent_post/nishi-rokugo-koen-tire-park/). And yeah, a couple of tire swings—3,000 tires go a long way.
Tumbling Bay Playground, London, United Kingdom
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Rather than let the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park rot away after the 2012 games left town, Land Use Consultants and Erect Architecture
devised a way for a new kind of park (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-design/natural-playgrounds/tumbling-bay-playground-queen-
elizabeth-olympic-park-london-land-use-consultants-and-erect-architecture-2013/) to grow out of the ruins. That’s a highfalutin way of
saying the swings don’t have to hang from your standard metal A-frame. Another thing you’ll notice: lots and lots of grass, which somehow
is considered an unsafe playground surface (https://www.fatherly.com/yes-even-grass-is-now-considered-unsafe-for-playgrounds-
1073233525.html) here on the other side of the pond.
Faelledparken, Copenhagen, Denmark
CONTINUE
This list would have been completely invalid if it didn’t include at least one Monstrum playground, and at this point, might as well go big with
one made entirely of rooftops (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-design/contemporary-design/a-roof-party-playground-by-
monstrum/). The space invites kids to go Spiderman all over replicas of Copenhagen’s most famous buildings and features a lookout
platform, mini planetarium, and playable church bells.
Photos courtesy of Playscapes (http://www.play-scapes.com)
This article was originally published on Fatherly (https://www.fatherly.com/the-coolest-playgrounds-in-the-world-1259797088.html). If

you enjoyed this article, check out these other stories:
The 25 Best U.S. Cities For Kids To Play Outside

(https://www.fatherly.com/the-25-best-cities-for-kids-to-play-outside---fatherly-report-1247315890.html)The 9 Coolest, Most
Innovative, And Flat-Out Insane Tree Houses In The World
(https://www.fatherly.com/the-best-treehouses-in-the-world-1274639318.html)A Guy Who Climbed The 7 Summits On Getting
Kids Into Hiking (https://www.fatherly.com/how-to-get-kids-interested-in-hiking-1250368200.html)
Fatherly is a parenting resource for men who understand that embracing what they’ve become doesn’t mean giving
up who they are. Men who want to be great fathers without turning into cliches. Men who spent their formative
years laughing at blogs about dads in short shorts, but who will never, ever wear short shorts themselves. We’re
committed to making the parenting process easier, whether it’s offering a spot-on recommendation or a shameless
laugh to help you focus on spending more quality time with your kid and less time freaking out.
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1 Comment Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...
Reeve Brenner
To include people with disabilities and autistic participants and for older children who have outgrown the playground and love to play ball in
socialization with typical kids...see the National Association for Recreational Equality....and bankshot.com
Inclusive playgrounds
Playgrounds, whether they are or are not inclusive, are invariably outgrown by typical as well as atypical youngsters including the disabled.
Our organization, the National Association for Recreational Equality, (a group of retired clergy ),advocates for the post-playground physically
and cognitively challenged, the autisti… See More
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8/14/2019 The 11 Most Innovative, Beautiful, and Inspired Playgrounds on the Planet

The 11 Most Innovative, Beautiful, and

As playground expert Paige Johnson says (https://www.fatherly.com/playscapes-paige-johnson-interview-1240717183.html), just

Darling Quarter Playscape, Sydney, Australia

Kolle 37 Adventure Playground, Berlin, Germany

Americans may have heard of “The Land (http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/europes-adventure-playgrounds-

Parc De Belleville, Paris, France

Woods of Net, Hakone, Japan

Woods of Net (http://www.archdaily.com/39223/woods-of-net-tezuka-architects/) is half playground, half permanent installation for

Parque Gulliver, Valencia, Spain

Set your kid loose in Parque Gulliver (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-art/playable-sculpture/parque-gulliver-valencia-spain-1990/)

City Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

Showa Kinen Park, Tokyo, Japan

Schulberg Playground, Wiesbaden, Germany

Nishi Rokugo Koen Tire Park, Tokyo, Japan

Tumbling Bay Playground, London, United Kingdom

Faelledparken, Copenhagen, Denmark

Photos courtesy of Playscapes (http://www.play-scapes.com)

This article was originally published on Fatherly (https://www.fatherly.com/the-coolest-playgrounds-in-the-world-1259797088.html). If

The 25 Best U.S. Cities For Kids To Play Outside

1 Comment Sort by Oldest

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