WHAT ARE NATURAL PLAYGROUNDS?
If you’ve hiked mountain paths, caught frogs and crayfish in a stream, rolled down a grassy hill, planted seeds,
played in mud, or followed animal trails, then you’ve enjoyed natural play.
The intent of our designs is to reunite kids with nature and the concept of natural play. Playspaces are designed to allow and encourage unstructured free play. This type of play is spontaneous as kids use their imagination to invent games, explore and discover the world around them.
By maintaining natural grades, naturalizing large portions of the site, or introducing a wetland, kids once again have play areas that stimulate and challenge them. Children can again enjoy long days of climbing trees and hills, building forts, and manipulating natural materials into tools and toys. This type of play is vitally important for healthy physical and mental development.
DESIGN COLLABORATION
Our playground designers work in collaboration with you to combine plant material, pathways, drainage, and
weather phenomena with play structures and site menities to create play, social and learning opportunities in a
natural setting. Our designs seeks to create a natural landscape in miniature, full of intriguing play and learning
opportunities just waiting to be discovered by children of all ages.
Vegetation is used throughout the landscape to soften and cool the play space. Trees provide three-dimensional
structure to the space, and screen the surrounding urban landscape. If appropriate, site fixtures, fitness elements,
and site specific sculpture are incorporated into the design.
DESIGN METHODOLOGY
Meeting with you and key stakeholders, we conduct a Client Interview and Site Survey to determine an appropriate
conceptual design approach and budget. Once you approve our Summary of Design Requirements, our design
team creates several alternative designs using 3-dimensional modeling tools. The designs are presented to you
using traditional Plan View drawings, perspective drawings, and animated fly-through videos. This thorough
modeling approach ensures that all stakeholders can appreciate the design intent, and understand the key
landscape elements without an architectural background.
