Healing Spaces, Modern Architecture, and the Body by Sarah Schrank & Didem Ekici

Author:Sarah Schrank & Didem Ekici
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317123453
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

UNPACKING DATTNER’S PLAYSCAPES

With this architectural and theoretical grounding, Dattner completed his first Central Park playground, called the Adventure Playground, in 1967. The playground was located at the West 67th entrance to the park, serving a community that included a mix of upper-middle-class families and lower-income families, primarily recent immigrants in apartments and individuals living in single-room-occupancy housing. Dattner’s intention was for the playground to ensure a shared public space that would bring together the many types of people in the city.21

The playground entrance was located near the street, which ensured its surveillance by the community and its integration into the fabric of the neighborhood. The playground’s forms essentially created a large elongated oval with two entrance points. The play structures within the park followed the rounded shape, forming a continuous loop of ziggurats, tree houses, pools, poles, tunnels, and slides (Figure 6.1).

The forms were simple but monumental and primitive; they included mounds, pyramids, circular mazes, arcs, and channels. Dattner chose the circular form because it fostered “inclusion”—the child could select from a variety of different activities while still feeling like part of a larger group.22 While there was no prescribed order of play, the circular arrangement suggested continuous directional movement. Dattner also divided the plan into two halves: one end was for physical activity, such as “running, jumping, sliding, climbing, tunneling, balancing,” and the other end was for mental and motor development, such as building, painting, and playing with water.23 He ensured physical and developmental activities were programmed into the inert structures, envisioning certain objects being used for certain games: “The tower and maze, which resemble a fortress, were designed to be used also for games of strategy . . . all kinds of cowboy-and-indian type battles as well as short-range snowball fights.”24 There was a continuous low wall just wide enough for children that circumscribed the playground. At one point along the wall (which was Dattner’s intended start and finish), he placed a special section of heavy wooden timbers set on end and of varying heights as a way of creating one final obstacle, encouraging a sense of accomplishment at the completion of a task. Dattner’s formal arrangement was almost entirely functional and was based on child engagement, play patterns, and the development processes.

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