Playgrounds: From Van Eyck to Pikionis

Central Image: Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam | rocagallery.com

“The structure of play absorbs the player into itself, and thus frees him from the burden of taking the initiative, which constitutes the actual strain of existence.”

Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method

Playing is a special ontological condition. When we play we do something that suspends, for the time being, the weight of our existence. It is an entirely light situation without a practical result with absolute consequences, while at the same tim, it demands the complete earnestness of the players and their compliance to the rules and the physical, geometric limits imposed by spaces that range from a small wooden surface of a checkers board to a large football field. Children are luckier than us adults in this respect. They have been given a specific space within the city to exercise this right of theirs. These spaces are called playgrounds, it’s a typology of the past century since children up until recently weren’t recognised as special entities by societies, and they are dedicated to playing and whatever else comes with it.

Aldo van Eyck, Playground, Amsterdam | rocagallery.com

Aldo van Eyck, Amsterdam | hertzberger.nl

The most beautiful playgrounds I’ve encountered have been designed by Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck and they are the legendary Amsterdam playgrounds. Hundreds of them were constructed after WWII by the public service of the city as part of a strategy to revitalise and give back to the citizens the ruined, bombarded buildings of the city. It was an initiative that included children as aprimary part of the rebuilding and reconfiguration of the urban web and promoted social interaction and the redefinition of relationships within the city’s natural space. Van Eyck’s geometrical constructions were not particular toys demanding particular play but constituted plastic occurrences in space that suggested, through the gaps between them and the shapes they formed, the liberal discovery of the amazing possibilities of space. Instead of occupying children with English, German, swimming, piano and ballet lessons, the Dutch playgrounds served the less regulated and normal activities, aiming to develop different aspects of their skills, like imagination, flexibility and sociability. 

Assemble Studio, London | assemblestudio.co.uk

Studio Assemble follows a similar direction with its spaces and installations designed for kids. It’s a somewhat peculiar direction in our times that encourages play with no adult supervision and emphasises physical activity. The Assemble collective may have been influenced by the so-called “junk playgrounds” by Dutch landscape architect Carl Theodor Sorensen, who, based on the ideas of Friedrich Froebel about natural play, creates landscapes by sorting through discarded objects, like cars, pillars, cardboard boxes and anything else found rejected, and creates a field protected by tall greenery for children to be let free to play, imagine and cooperate with each other.

Assemble Studio, Glasgow | assemblestudio.co.uk

Carl Theodor Sorensen, Copenhagen | artblart.com

In a more architectural expression in Greece, Dimitris Pikionis designs the renowned playground in Filothei. Fragments open to the physical and intellectual interpretation of the children are placed around the space. A boat washed ashore, rocks meticulously placed, pillars and archetypical huts from a spiritual place complete the organic composition of the space. Symbols on the structural members of the Japanese architecture-inspired parts of the work allow for correlations and views to be formed, pertaining to but also escaping beyond the existing space. The dreamy locus of one of the Greek architect’s last works apposes and superimposes elements from the East and the West, in a dialogue and a vivacious play, this time, between the means of architectural creation themselves.

Dimitris Pikionis, Athens | doma.archi

Dimitris Pikionis, Athens | doma.archi

In a world where public spaces are more and more restricted, playgrounds constitute lively monuments. In societies where the consumption of all forms of energy is aimed at some ultimate productive purpose, carefree play is rare. Playgrounds construct the performance of an interesting “nothing” for the sole purpose of pure childish enjoyment. After all, to circle back to Van Eyck like a merry-go-round, a city that has no room for the child is a diabolical thing.