The Playground Project Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited with introduction by Gabriela Burkhalter. Text by Xavier de la Salle, Vincent Romagny, Sreejata Roy. Until sometime in the 1980s, playgrounds were places for social experiments, risky projects and spectacular sculptures. Architects, urban planners, artists, parents and children were invited to leave their comfort zones and to venture something new in the design and use of playgrounds. The Playground Project explores these exemplary initiatives, pioneering acts and adventures in designing modern childhood. Examples from Europe, the US, Japan and India are discussed in depth and illustrated with numerous images. Truly a comprehensive overview, this volume includes works by artists, architects and landscape architects such as Marjory Allen, Joseph Brown, Riccardo Dalisi, Richard Dattner, Aldo van Eyck, M. Paul Friedberg, Group Ludic (Xavier de la Salle, Simon Koszel, David Roditi), Alfred Ledermann and Alfred Trachsel, Palle Nielsen, Egon Møller-Nielsen, Isamu Noguchi, Joseph Schagerl, Mitsuru Senda and Carl Theodor Sørensen. Swiss political scientist and urban planner Gabriela Burkhalter contributes an introduction, and essays by Xavier de la Salle, Sreejata Roy and Vincent Romagny investigate the stakes of the architectural and artistic experiments surveyed. The first comprehensive overview of this kind, The Playground Project addresses laymen as well as experts who want to do more on the playground than just seesaw and swing.
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