Unconventional Playgrounds: Built from Junk, Shaped by Concrete, Freed by Play

"For decades, cities have built playgrounds to be clean, colorful, and easy to supervise. Yet these spaces-designed more for adult peace of mind than for children's curiosity-often strip away what makes play truly transformative: risk, unpredictability, and self-direction. Rising safety standards, shrinking public space, and the commercialization of play equipment have only further narrowed the possibilities for children's independent exploration."

"In a residential neighborhood in Emdrup, landscape architect Carl Theodor Sørensen turned a vacant lot into what became known as a " junk playground." Instead of swings and slides, children found loose materials like wood, ropes, tires, and sticks. Sørensen had already observed that children often ignored his carefully designed play equipment in favor of improvised materials -objects they could use and transform themselves."

Cities traditionally built playgrounds focused on cleanliness, bright colors, and easy supervision, which prioritized adult comfort over children's curiosity. Safety standards, reduced public space, and commercialized equipment have limited opportunities for independent, risky, and self-directed play. Early experiments like the 1943 Emdrup "junk playground" provided loose materials—wood, ropes, tires—and no fixed structures, allowing children to build, demolish, and innovate. Scarcity became a strength, promoting collaborative, creative, hands-on exploration. A lineage of architects, planners, and activists created unconventional play environments made of raw materials and abstract forms that encourage autonomy, unpredictability, and embodied learning through messy, exploratory experience.

Read at ArchDaily