This piece is about a really good Adventure Playground.
It was written a couple of years ago, but essentially it is still current.
It is always a joy to take people on a visit to Glamis. It feels so close and familiar to o many people, yet it is also hard to believe that such a place exists in the world.
There will be photo essays coming on line to illustrate this piece , the gorilla environment and the Kentish Playhood essays as well as one on Aldo Van Eyke.
This is a documentation of a conversation with the Head of Gorillas in Howletts Conservation Park.
Together we explore the similarities between our two areas of work. Children and the gorillas both make dens , enjoy their movement, forage for food, learn to climb and jump at a pace that suits them, they play together and enjoy their privacy and make the tools they need out of the things they find around them. They need to be in control of their activities, sometimes they need support with a few things, but this needs doing in ways that are well considered and well informed.
Children and gorillas need well designed places that understand the work that needs to be done. They need risk and challenge and loose parts.
Deprived of these things, they do not grow in the way that they should…
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I have just posted the first of a series of pieces that were written as a result of a CABE Space scholarship. The brief was to look at the inspiration and theory behind the design of some of the best play places that I know.
The first essay is about my own Playhood in Kent and some of the things that have happened to that place in the last 40 years.
Following this there are writings about a gorilla enclosure, the work of Aldo Van Eyke, Glamis Adventure Playground, and the life and work of Lady Allen of Hurtwood.
Have a read and let me know what you think.