Do you want to enjoy all the presentations from last month’s Open for Play seminar – on designing for play in playgrounds, streets and public spaces – from the comfort of your own office (or living room, studio, or bedroom)? Well, here is your chance. The full programme of formal presentations is now available to view online in glorious video and audio.
You can start (if you wish) with my introductory remarks [10 mins approx].
You can also watch:
Paige Johnson on hot topics in playground design, drawing on the trends she has seen while writing her playscapes blog [three sections: 25 mins total approx]. Explore the boundaries between play, nature, risk, community, gallery art, maker culture and more.
Jennette Emery-Wallis on the design concept for the North Park area of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park [20 mins approx]. Get the inside track on this flagship natural play area, which will be the first part of the park to open next July. It is guaranteed to generate a great deal of interest.
Liz Kessler on how a suite of public space improvement projects transformed an inner city part of London [three sections: 30 mins total approx]. Eight years ago, the EC1 New Deal for Communities area was run-down and unloved. Now, the parks are full with users of all ages, the streets are lively, and there’s a tangible mood of optimism.
These recordings are brought to you by Fergus Carnegie, who runs the website Urban Nous. If you have any interest in ideas about reshaping cities, his back catalogue is well worth exploring.
As you may have spotted, 2012 was Open for Play’s first year. Paige and I would welcome any feedback on the seminar, the visits and the idea as a whole. She is writing a blog post giving her thoughts and reflections. We are keen to develop the event next year. So let us know your thoughts and reactions. And of course, comments on the videos would also be most welcome.
Update 21 Jan 2013: Paige has posted her own take on the seminar on her playscapes blog here.
Rethinking Childhood 
Fabulous,
I’ve been looking forward to revisiting these great talks.
Well done everyone for pulling it together and thanks Tim for posting.
I’ll leave separate feedback regarding open for play,
Best
Erin
Thank you so much for sharing these videos, they are all fascinating. I enjoyed all of the speakers and found them all to complement each other really well. I watched them all yesterday morning just before going into our Nursery to be there for the arrival of our new climbing log to replace our dull orange climbing frame. I still had the quote you gave from Helle Nebelong going round my head Tim and it felt really appopriate. The idea of interesting things happening at the boundaries as Paige explored has really stayed with me too and I think I will find it a useful way to talk about and plan for what we are trying to do in our little Nursery. It is fantastic to see the changes in EC1 and the plans for North Park and makes me feel hopeful when funds are short that the coming together of many different people can create some really exciting results. I’ll look out for your plans for next year, the “Open for play” events seem a fantastic idea to me and I am sure it will be international next year !
Erin, Jo – thanks for the comments, and glad you enjoyed them. Jo – I agree, the talks fit well together as a set.
There is definately a great deal to know about this subject.
I like all the points you made.
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