ADVENTURE SITES: THREE INCIDENTAL ACTIONS

Abstract

In the 1960s, the concept of adventure was associated with a type of playground considered the ideal solution for providing children with a place of their own in the modern city. Today, this concept is re-emerging as we value the importance of unstructured play in children’s development and its link with the natural environment. The aim of this research is to review three adventure playgrounds from those years that are variants of children’s creative outdoor play. The Høje Gladsaxe action playground (Denmark) was a claim to the child’s own place made from junk and debris. The Lollard adventure playground (Great Britain) was an anarchic experience considered a small experiment in democratic living. In addition, Robinson Park (Switzerland) was a grouping of leisure time activities aimed to encourage a communal sense. The methodology applied is the critical and descriptive analysis of these examples to deduce three incidental actions that can guide us in the significance of the architecture of adventure sites. We conclude by pointing out that the free and creative play of the child in these places can teach us about the potential of interacting with the land and about the attention and care we pay to nature. These sites are a resource that triggers the tacit learning of incidental actions.