PLAY
CREATING PLAY IN THE STREET
The street which has been created within this scheme runs through the centre of the retail units up to the training centre. This street is where life will happen in the scheme, where life will flow out of the retail units and spill out into the space inbetween. Therefore, to encourage life in this area we need to appropriate the space is a sustainable manner. Creating spaces where children can play are key. The goal was to not create a standard playarea but to create space which was integreated into the landscape, a space which abstractly beocmes a playarea. Imagining what this space could become I took ideas from the precedent Potgietestraat by Carve Landscape Architecture, pictures of which are shown below.
POTGIETERSTRAAT, AMSTERDAM
"Small interventions often evoke bigger changes."
This project took on local involvment in a design for a street in Amsterdam. Situated in inner Amsterdam the street was suffering from the context of 19th century buildings disadvantaging public life as the streets were never intended for cars and public spaces had been blocked off. The aim was to strengthen and vitalise the public realm through design. Through this intervention one of the streets was closed down so that the street instead could becoming a place with meeting and pausing spaces, a playground and positive urban beacon for the district. The street is only accessible to bikes and pedestrians. Landscape architects, Carve, designed a mogul landscape with the play objects integrated and materialised in an abstract black rubber. This surface can be used as a drawing surface and is safe to jump, run and fall onto. This space has become a reclaimation of the local urban realm by its community, enticing children, parents and also those without children to interact in this space.