Play Capacity Or How to make a wonderful playground?

Oct. 18, 2010 - PRLog -- What adults really find disturbing about preschool play is the absence of rules. Or better:  the continuous process of inventing new rules for new play. One day’s play context may find that some of yesterdays rules are still good enough, while others are outdated due to changes in seize of playgroup, the environment, the weather etc. This is no problem for the children, for to organize and structure a play is part of the fun. But it can be awkward for the adult’s logical way of thinking.
Therefore a constant effort is made to register play with factors like Kids Capacity and Number of Play Events : a precise number of play events housing a specific quantity of children with proper respect to safety regulations and accessibility guidelines, will result in the exact amount of play that you have paid for.
Intriguing as it sounds – it is not synonymous to play.

Visit http://www.kompan.com.au for more details.

Play cannot be categorized or defined by numbers or rules. Play takes place in the corners and the pockets of the playground and the most attractive place is sometimes neither to be seen or to be understood by adults. It can be found in the sunny spot next to the structure or under the slide, while the nicely arranged bench and table place in the playhouse is totally deserted – today. Tomorrow a new playgroup, following new rules will invent a play that can only take place under the roof of the playhouse or behind the climbing wall.
Kids capacity and play event counts seem to be ridiculous from this point of view. But still the question is how to measure the worth of a playground.  
The answer is as complex as play itself. Or maybe as simple.
More than anything a playground must offer places – places for play. Secret places, wide-open spaces, low space, high space. For after all a playground is a place where play should take place.
And what makes play takes place?
-   People – all sorts of them. To make an interesting place for people it must be beautiful.
-   Not all have the same aesthetics. To most adults beauty tends to be related with relaxation and peace, while children with a sensory system less matured identify beauty with stronger signals: a place that sends heavy signals to all senses.
-   A place that can adapt to creative play inventions to make play transform and changeable.

Visit http://www.kompan.com.au for more details.

Playground equipment is not making playgrounds. We know that. But playground equipment can reflect all these demands by integrating them within it’s own frames.
KOMPAN Elements is not counting on winning the counting game. Counting Kids capacity and Play events is not a way to measure the Play Capacity of Elements.
Every single element of the system has been designed (formed, shaped and coloured) to create entities for play. Places where everything represents an invitation for play and stay.  So apart from the obvious and direct play opportunities the more hidden and indirect are aqually important for the play in the structures
•   The levelling of the platforms moves the structure upward in a gentle flow,
•   the pattern of the panels invite busy fingers to explore their possibilities,
•    the colour system highlights different parts of the structure.

This way Elements is offering the many small or larger places that can welcome all kinds of play situations. Play that lasts only the seconds it takes to go down a slide or that will go on and on over days with changing actors and locations. Elements offers places for New Play News Rules.
So Elements chooses to follow the rules of play by focusing more on offering the player open solution than on defined play events. Where play can be discussed and reorganized and nothing is ever the same, Elements is in its real element.

Visit http://www.kompan.com.au for more details.

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KOMPAN provides award winning playground equipment including swing sets, slides, rope nets and playhouses that suit all ages and abilities.