How to design a great playscape

The difference between a playground and a playscape

To many people a traditional “playground” suggests a somewhat man-made environment, perhaps a tarmac space outside a school building with coloured games painted on it or a fenced area on a housing estate with swings and climbing frame within it. These types of playgrounds have their place and can be designed to be attractive places that serve their surrounding communities very well. They can be exciting, well used and much loved places.

A “playscape” is different to a traditional playground. A playscape considers and incorporates the wider environment and broadens the opportunities for free unstructured play. It will be a place that is set in the natural environment, maybe enhanced with new planting, interesting landform and enticing structures. The possibility of moving and interacting with the parts that form the play space itself could be a feature. It will be a place that relies on and develops children’s creative play instincts, encouraging both shared and lone learning experiences, supports physical play, social bonding, risk taking and discovery of the natural world while learning about environment stewardship. It is almost certainly a place to play without the barriers and constraints of supervision.

There is compelling research and a good body of evidence to suggest children who have positive opportunities to engage in play in a natural environment have the ability to increase their attention span, reduce depression and lower the symptoms of attention deficit disorders, alongside other accepted benefits of outdoor physical exercise. However, human instinct and our natural response to our environment simply reinforces that we enjoy being in green spaces, we feel relaxed and enriched by them. Why else are we drawn to public parks, the countryside and our memories of playing in the woods as children?

How we create playscapes

At HAGS we are most often asked to create play spaces that incorporate the best of both worlds – great play equipment that is recognisable to the public as such, as well as being set into an engaging and stimulating natural environment. Here are our top tips on how to achieve this:

If you wish to know more about playscape design, your local HAGS sales representative can book a visit to your site and discuss how to transform it into a memorable destination for the community. Contact us, we'd love to get involved!