rolling and roles

Here's a nice pic Tim took of people rolling down a grass slope at the Thames Barrier Park.

Hattie is a speaker at the forthcoming Places to Play conference which will launch Luton's Playbuilder programme. She will be talking about how we can deliver a truly playable public realm and what role artists can play.

urban wordplay

Sarah Butler is a writer and literature development worker whose consultancy company UrbanWords specialises in projects which use creative writing as a way to explore and question our relationship to place. She interviewed Hattie and Chris about public projects involving text and you can read her full report, A Place for Words at
www.urbanwords.org.uk/urbanwords/placeforwords1.html

Here's an extract:

"Ask children what they want in their new playground and they might say, oh, some swings over there in the corner, maybe a slide, and a sandpit. Now get a writer to guide them through the process of creating a group poem that asks them what they think play is; what makes them feel safe; and how their dream playground would make them feel, like the organisation Snug and Outdoor do when they start to design new play spaces for children, and you get a totally different picture. A group of children with physical and learning disabilities in Southampton, working with the poet Chris Meade, told Snug and Outdoor that their dream playground is the place that makes you go ahhhhh setting up a real challenge and opportunity for the designers and architects to respond to. By engaging creatively with space and their emotional responses to space, the children were able to get past the play spaces they already had or had already experienced and re-imagine the possibilities of a new space.

Snug and Outdoor used a similar process in a public art project, Hackney Hotlinks, that explored the relationship people living, working or visiting Mare Street in Hackney had with that place and what their aspirations and hopes might be for a regenerated Mare Street. Using writing workshops, spontaneous conversations and a temporary installation of visual and sound projection, the artists were able to get past the negative and the everyday and start really exploring the relationship between people and place. Hattie Coppard, Director of Snug and Outdoor is adamant about the benefits of creative consultation. It’s about exploring imagination, not gripes, she says. It’s about getting people to express something they haven’t imagined yet."

Sarah is now doing further research, funded by Arts Council England, looking at ways of:
* Effectively consulting with communities – helping to give voice to groups of residents who might find conventional consultation techniques hard to handle
* Helping developers, architects and communities think creatively about the spaces they inhabit/want to create
* Finding ways of expressing Heritage and natural ecologies in the creation of new spaces that have a distinctive sense of place using writing techniques to help communities to appreciate/understand local heritage and using this to help engage with new developments during and after their planning and construction




South Bank graffiti

SNUG & OUTANDABOUT

Hattie is on the play trail this summer as part of a roadshow organised by Robin of Sutcliffe Play, travelling the nation to talk play.

‘Genius Loci’ seminars will address the current issues which challenge and confront play providers today.

The first seminar will be on 11 June in Dublin, hosted by Sugradh, the IPPA (the Early Childhood Organisation) and Allplay. This will be followed by seminars in Belfast (June 12), Wakefield (July 10) and Cardiff (July 18). Autumn dates in London and Edinburgh are to be confirmed.

Managing Director of Sutcliffe Play, Robin Sutcliffe, said: “In Roman mythology a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place, often depicted as a snake. Now it usually refers to a location’s distinctive atmosphere and is the foundation for one of the principles of landscape architecture – that designs should always be adapted to the context in which they are located.

“This should equally be applied to play spaces and forms the background to this series of seminars.”


Hattie will be the first of the day’s speakers, her theme: “Nature is all very well but…”

Hattie will be followed by Noel Farrer, landscape architect, CABE Enabler and Director of Farrer Huxley Associates – a London practice specialising in the development of meaningful, quality spaces for people to enjoy and play. He will look at public realm space and asks “Who needs standards anyway?”

Bernard Spiegal, Principal of PLAYLINK, will then address the issue of consultation with a talk titled “Consultation – stop it, please, stop it!”

The final talk of the morning will by given by Robin Sutcliffe of Sutcliffe Play. He will state his case with “What’s your problem with fixed play equipment?”

The seminars, which cost £50 (€70 for Dublin) will include lunch and a CPD certificate of attendance.

For details on how to book a place email lisad@sutcliffeplay.co.uk or telephone 01977 653200.

A Bouncing Bench and Calvinball

The best cartoon strip in the world on organised play - recommended by Bruno Taylor of BigBru designs who also sent us this fantastic picture of his amazing bouncing bench.

Design for Play: Creating Successful Play Spaces

Snug & Outdoor have just received details of this presentation, available now:

A presentation based on the forthcoming publication Design for Play: A guide to creating successful play spaces, by Aileen Shackell, Nicola Butler, Phil Doyle and David Ball, published by Play England and the Department for Children, Families and Schools is now available on the Free Play Network website at:

http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/designforplay

Online Discussion Forum, 16 - 27 June 2008

There will be an opportunity to put your questions direct to the authors of Design for Play in an online discussion forum on designing for play from 16 - 27 June 2008 on the Free Play Network website, http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/discussion/designforplay

Speakers and Workshops

The Free Play Network can provide speakers and workshops on the issues raised in Design for Play.

For more information on Design for Play and other Free Play Network services, please contact:

Nicola Butler
Director
Free Play Network
129 Lancaster Road
Barnet
Herts
EN4 8AJ
020 8440 9276
nbutler@freeplaynetwork.org.uk
www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk

Join the Free Play Network contact lists

We would appreciate your help in disseminating information about the Free Play Network's work. If you care to, please:

* Send this notice to individuals and organisations offering them the opportunity to join the Freeplay Network emailing list. This will help keep them informed about events and developments.
* To subscribe to their email list, go to: http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/join/index.php

Joke (from year 8 pupil, brum)

Q: Why did the chicken cross the playground?
A: To get to the other slide.

Make every place a playful space

Would you like to swing on a bus stop? Bruno Taylor shows you how.

"WE ARE NOT INTENDING TO HAVE ANY PLAYTIME"

Yesterday Hattie went to the Nuffield Foundation for a presentation of the research undertaken by Professor Peter Blatchford and Dr Ed Baines into the 'social and educational significance of school break times'. Hattie was an advisor to the study.

The research showed that school break times are being reduced in time and number across the country and particularly at secondary level. One extreme example is the new Academy built in Peterborough (Norman Foster designed) which has no playground at all -
"We are not intending to have any playtime. Pupils won't need to let off steam, because they will not be bored" - Headteacher.
"We have taken away an uncontrollable space to prevent bullying and truancy"
- Project manager.

The research shows that breaktimes are overwhelmingly popular with pupils and that secondary school students in particular want longer lunch times - many are only half an hour long. Staff value break times as a space where pupils can get physical exercise and develop important social skills.

Taking away outdoor space and controlling every aspect of the student's environment flies in the face of other government initiatives such as Every Child Matters, Learning Outside the Classoom, and worries about obesity etc.

To find out more, see: The Social and Educational Significance of School Breaktimes by Peter Blatchford and Ed Baines. Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, London.

Places for Spaces

This week we've been running a Places for Spaces workshop for Solent Architecture Centre. Here are a couple of photos showing councillors, council officers, developers from Brighton, Southampton and Portsmouth experimenting in Cosham High Street with the help of large foam blocks, carpets and parasols. (this equipment has been developed for Hampshire's Big Landscape Project and is available to any secondary school wanting to experiment with their outdoor spaces.)

Adult's play

In Manchester a playground for the elderly opens.
(Not one of ours but a nice idea).
















In London a woman and a cuddly toy shark are seen asleep on the tube.

this is happening

Hattie Coppard of Snug & Outdoor spoke recently at THIS HAPPENED, a regular series of events on interactive design.

Organiser Chris O'Shea is doing a 6 min talk on tuesday (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide) and wrote to tell us that Snug & Outdoor feature in it.

Chris says: it's about the playful things that i like essentially.
this is the event:
http://nmk.co.uk/2008/03/17/ill-show-you-mine/

Oh and here are lots of links to good blog coverage of Hattie's appearance:

http://designswarm.com/blog/2008/03/08/this-happened-3-a-report/
http://www.thomevincent.com/blog/index.php?2008/03/05/378-this-happened
http://www.tomhume.org/2008/03/this-happened.html
http://itsthirdyear.blogspot.com/2008/03/hattie-coppard-snug-and-outdoor.html

Theres about 10 pages of photos here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/thishappened-london-0308



these happening people

this is happening too

THE NICOLAS WALTER MEMORIAL LECTURE
1968 And All That, 10 May 2008
South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1

The Child at Play

Ken Worpole

Images of children at play in the streets and on the bomb-sites of post-war Europe created a new sensibility around childhood and notions of a better world to be made. Children's street games anticipated the reclamation of the streets as a domain of liberty well in advance of the events of 1968. Ken Worpole looks at the role that photographers such as Nigel Henderson, Roger Mayne, Bert Hardy, Jimmy Forsythe and song collectors such as the Opies and JTR Ritchie played in shaping a vision of childhood as a realm of liberty and freedom of expression, which set the tone for free politics in the 1960s.

2pm, Library, Free Admission

Ken Worpole is a writer on architecture, landscape and public policy. A new edition of his
study of radical fiction, Dockers & Detectives, has just been re-published
by Five Leaves Publications.

Nicolas Walter (1934 - 2000) was an anarchist, secularist and writer on
social questions. His book, The Anarchist Past and other essays, is
published by Five Leaves Publications.

"1968 and all that" is a day of celebration - one, two, many meetings - and an all day book fair. Full details on www.1968andallthat.net

Problem Playground

"Isn't every problem a playground?" That's the punchline for this new car advert which also refers to the current trend for seeking solutions by opening them up to the wisdom of the crowd.



Persil's 'DIRT IS GOOD' was another advertising campaign that said great things about the joys of messy play. Any more examples of play in the media (good or bad) are welcome.

What's to come

Hattie's been reading Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga in preparation for the talks she'll be giving on the Robin Sutcliffe roadshow this summer. Watch this space for time and dates and wise thoughts on why play matters. What's the most inspiring thing you've read about play? Please share it here.

Snug's brilliant designer Michael Cross has an exhibition of his own work opening in Belgium shortly. Meanwhile he and Tim are busy finalising designs for Chimney Park in Dublin's docklands. You heard it here first.



Snug's amazing new administrator Karee is building a database of contacts to help us market the wonderful Snug Kit to schools around the UK and the planet. Please let us know of anyone you think we should be contacting.

We have a SNUG group on Facebook too. It's only small so far - why not join the playground revolution? Click here now.

Snug pics - Remembering the Launch

Strategy strategy

This Guardian article is a useful starting point for looking at the Governement's play strategy.

START HERE

Snug and Outdoor are launching this blog as a means to keep people in touch with the full range of our activities, and in the hope of building a network of people and agencies interested in ensuring that play provision in the UK inspires experimentation.

We'll be keeping you in touch with our own work and looking out for articles, books and events that might be of interest to others in the field.

Current Government funding for play may provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform the 'playscape' of possibilities available to young people.

This blog is guest edited by Chris Meade, writer and co-Director of if:book, an agency looking at the potential of new media for creative reading and writing. He's interested in the link between playground games and the imagination. Chris was previously Director of the Poetry Society and Booktrust.

We're keen to find a pool of people who would like to contribute to this blog.
Please leave comments, suggest links and spread the word about what we're doing.