Description:

After the Second World War Dutch cities faced many challenges including lack of housing, the need to develop inner city areas and a baby boom. At the time, as a result of previous urban functionalist tendency, there were no space available for children and the existing playgrounds were mainly of a private nature.
Van Eyck designed hundreds of playgrounds using temporary unused empty lots as a tactical solution to give neighbourhoods their own playground. He designed equipment in a modular, participative and minimalistic way to facilitate its construction and develop children’s imagination and interaction with the space.

Goals:

To focus on how space could be appropriated by citizens and architecture to facilitate human activity and promote social interaction.

Beneficial Outcomes:

700 playgrounds were built. Nowadays only 90 survived with their original layout. Playgrounds were an opportunity to test ideas on architecture, imagination and social interaction. It functioned as a cultural critique and it has a huge influence in the practice of urban design.

Images: