kids need safe places to play. but if you ask them, a playground that’s too safe is a boring playground, says susan herrington, a professor in the university of b.c.’s school of architecture and landscape architecture who researches and designs children’s play areas.
no one wants kids to be maimed while playing — but a growing international body of research touts the benefits of what experts call “ risky play .” injury prevention is important, but many children’s health experts now say the goal should be keeping children “ as safe as necessary ” — not “as safe as possible.”
in 2007, herrington published an article in the academic journal critical social policy , which began: “over the past decade the outdoor spaces designed for children in canada have largely been shaped by fear and profit, rather than by what we know about children’s play and development.”
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a 2012 article in the international journal of environmental research and public health cited research describing “a risk-deprived child as more prone to problems such as obesity, mental-health concerns, lack of independence, and a decrease in learning, perception and judgment skills.”
however, herrington said recently that the trend seems to be reversing, after years of research and greater understanding of risky play’s benefits. some of metro vancouver’s newer public park designs incorporate innovative, risky elements, she said, citing richmond’s terra nova park and vancouver’s newest park, sθәqәlxenәm ts’exwts’áxwi7.
the new downtown park sθәqәlxenәm ts’exwts’áxwi7 , also known as rainbow park , is vancouver’s first park given a name by the musqueam, squamish and tsleil-waututh nations, and opened to the public earlier this year on a former parking lot at smithe and richards streets.
it doesn’t look like a typical park. there are no swings and almost no grass. not everyone was instantly a big fan of the design, with some residents complaining about all the big, tall structures and lack of picnic space. in 2019, when city council approved the $14 million contract for the park’s construction and $500,000 in annual maintenance, vancouver green coun. pete fry told cbc news reporter justin mcelroy he was “not crazy about the design” and it seemed “a bit of an overspend.”
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“we definitely don’t want to design boring playgrounds,” yu said. “there are really imaginative ways you can design playgrounds that might seem risky, but they’re actually quite safe.”
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