Please volunteer to use your energy creatively and get involved in the Hopewell Borough Playground Project! The architectural design of this new community playground uses drawings, essays, and suggestions from students all over the county who were asked their ideas of "dream playgrounds." Now we need your help to build it! Together, we can create safe, environmentally friendly, child-inspired, community-built playgrounds for all to enjoy! Like an old fashioned barn-raising, the new playgrounds will be built on June 17-21, 2009. We will need a total of over 750 community volunteers of all ages and skill-levels to work side-by-side and build a lasting product for our community.
My name is Ponnapa Prakkamakul. I have a keen interest in how the design of an outdoor open space impacts the holistic development of a child. In 2013, I took a sabbatical year to be a volunteer teacher and observe how children play in a natural setting in a school at a border between Thailand and Burma. In 2015, with a grant from Sasaki I teamed up with my colleague Kate Tooke to research innovative playscapes. I also teach a class, Make Your Own Playground, for the ESP program at MIT every summer.
Playground design volunteer information
In my opinion, the best way to design for children is to include them into the design process. This also helps to understand their preferences, as sometimes they do not quite know what they want or like. A close observation and a mockup test are very helpful processes I use when designing play tools for children. Therefore, being a volunteer at the Greenway Conservancy has greatly informed my practice as a designer.
I would like to design and build a playground together with children and the community. The playground will have loose parts that children can continue to construct their play spaces creating a playground that evolves over time.
The information contained within this Resource Page relates to the design and construction of public playgrounds. For home playgrounds, refer to the safety tips for home playgrounds and equipment that have been issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The main issue in designing playgrounds is to provide challenging and fun activities while also providing for the safety of the children using the playground. Techniques for designing and constructing safe play environments that provide age-appropriate challenges and play experiences for children are outlined in the CPSC's Public Playground Safety Handbook . Similar information is given in ASTM F1487, which may also be purchased from ASTM International. Safety standards regarding playground surfacing may be found in ASTM F1292. For manufactured playground equipment, the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA) offers third-party certification as an indication of a manufacturer's product meeting one of the ASTM standards listed above or the Canadian equivalent.
As in the design of any architectural space, the process of designing a playground should begin with thorough programming to better understand the needs of the owner and how and by whom the playground will be used. For example, important pre-design information includes knowing how (walking, riding bikes, cars, buses, etc.) and from which directions the children might arrive at the playground; whether or not the children will be supervised while playing on the playground; what the anticipated age range of the children using the playground will be; and how many children are typically expected to be on the playground at one time. Knowing how and by what means the playground will be maintained may also affect many planning and design decisions.
Because children differ in the activities that they choose to engage in during play, the playground should offer a variety of play activities, or zones. Following is a list of potential zones that is helpful in initiating discussion during the programming and design stages. While not all zones may be incorporated into the final design, a pre-design discussion about each zone will generate unique and situationally responsive playground designs. During design, care should be taken to locate activities that generate similar noise levels adjacent to each other to avoid having children that are engaged in noisy forms of play disturbing those that have chosen quieter activities.
Since the Gross Motor Play Zone is typically the largest and main zone within a playground, it is helpful to determine the square footage that will be needed for this area early in the design phase. The inclusion of additional zones in the design will require additional square footage. Research indicates that the greater the number of square feet allotted per child, there is a corresponding decrease in the number of injuries. The chart below gives guidelines for sizing the area of the playground that will contain the Gross Motor Play equipment.
The process of estimating the construction of a playground is similar to that of the construction of any environment. However, costs sometimes become more difficult to predict for playgrounds that are being built through volunteer labor using donated or at-cost materials. The cost of initial site work is also often substantial and should be determined early in the design process. For projects that are to be developed through a standard construction process, the following formula may be useful. The Access Board, as part of the Play Area Accessibility Guidelines, developed this formula to provide an estimate of the costs associated with the development of the Gross Motor Play Zone within a playground:
WBDG is a gateway to up-to-date information on integrated 'whole building' design techniques and technologies. The goal of 'Whole Building' Design is to create a successful high-performance building by applying an integrated design and team approach to the project during the planning and programming phases.
Domaradzki said that the entire process hinged upon implementing as much equipment that the kids wanted to see in the design for this playground. After a few hours, the committee wrapped up the feedback session and all of it was sent over to a design team.
The Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm designed the majority of Seattle's parks. John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920), the stepson of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who designed New York City's Central Park, was the firm's principal designer in Seattle. His 1903 master plan laid out a 20-mile-long greensward of parks and boulevards that ran from Seward Park along Lake Washington and across the city via Woodland Park to Discovery Park. Olmsted also designed the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909 and the Highlands subdivision. (The Highlands is a "gated community" on Puget Sound immediately north of the Seattle City Limits.) He is credited with introducing the playground concept to the city.
In 1903, the Seattle City Council forever changed the face of the city when it hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm of Brookline, Massachusetts, to develop a comprehensive plan for Seattle parks. Within 10 years Seattle had a park system that few cities could or can match. By 1937, the firm had designed 37 parks and playgrounds including Colman, Frink, Green Lake, Interlaken, Jefferson, Mt. Baker, Seward, Volunteer, Washington Park and Arboretum and Woodland parks, as well as Broadway Playfield, Hiawatha Playground, and Lake Washington, Magnolia, and Ravenna boulevards.
KABOOM! is proud to partner with Landscape Structures. Together, we design playgrounds that help create the best moments of childhood. Watch their latest video and see why we always come back to play. #shapedbyplay
Upon receipt of your application, the volunteer office will review your application and determine if there are any volunteer opportunities to match your interest areas. You will be contacted either by phone or email with information regarding your potential volunteer placement with 5 days of receipt in our office.
Upon receipt of your application, the volunteer office will review your application and determine if there are any volunteer opportunities that match your areas of interest indicated. You will be contacted either by phone or email with information regarding your potential volunteer placement with 24 hours of receipt in our office.
If you are an individual who is interested in volunteering, please print and fill out the Volunteer Application and Individual Release form. Please scan the form and return it via email. For more information email Meredith Ruiz or call her at 210.207.8603.
If you have other areas of expertise, such as recreational education, working with people with special challenges, marketing or other skills, you may contact Meredith Ruiz (210.207.8603) for information on other volunteer opportunities in the Parks and Recreation Department. Opportunities exist at our Community Centers as well as other facilities.
Citizens interested in contributing to the safety of City parks by being the eyes and ears of the San Antonio Park Police, may call 210.207.8529 or email for more information on the volunteer Park Watch Program. 2ff7e9595c
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