David Rockwell, the world-renowned New York based architect and designer is this week marking the European launch of his groundbreaking Imagination Playground concept with a Pop-Up Imagination Playground that will run until today at Coram’s Fields, a unique seven acre playground and park for children and young people in Central London.
With a focus on loose parts, Imagination Playground offers a changing array of elements that allow children to stretch their imaginations by constantly altering their environment. The permanent, flagship Imagination Playground park at Burling Slip in New York opened in July 2011 after five years research and development. It is an innovative play space designed pro bono by Rockwell, in close collaboration with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play.
Since its launch, Imagination Playground has attracted considerable praise and attention both within the USA and internationally. So much so that David Rockwell created a number of portable versions of the playground to bring the concept of free play to communities across the country and the world.
These scalable kits, such as Imagination Playground in a Box and in a Cart, bring the loose parts of the original playground together in container, so that the ethos of the permanent Imagination Playground can be taken to other play sites in a cost-effective and easy-to-install fashion. To date hundreds of Imagination Playgrounds in a Box have been deployed to local parks, school playgrounds and children’s museums in the United States and beyond.
The launch event celebrated the European launch of Imagination Playground in a Cart, the latest model of David Rockwell’s Imagination Playground concepts. This new model, which will be distributed by Play Direct UK.com, is essentially a lightweight, portable version of Imagination Playground.
It comes in an easily maneuvered cart, making it incredibly adaptable to a number of play environments. Imagination Playground in a Cart includes a full set of Imagination Playground blocks housed in a storage unit that easily moves through a standard door for both indoor and outdoor use. This versatile set is an ideal solution for sites that do not need the secured container of Imagination Playground in a Box, another portable Imagination Playground product.
“The driving force behind Imagination Playground has always been to provide a way to encourage kids to do what they do best: to be creative and to use their imaginations,” said David Rockwell, founder and CEO of Rockwell Group. “Imagination Playground in a Cart will allow us to present this opportunity to the children of the world. The global expansion is so exciting, and I hope we can only continue to bring Imagination Playground to more and more corners of the world.”
As a thank you to Coram’s Fields, David Rockwell will also be donating an Imagination Playground in a Cart so that the thousands of Children who visit this inspirational playground each year will be able to experience some of the magic of his New York Imagination Playground.
Image by Susan Smart
