A01=Ben Highmore
adventure
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
animals
Author_Ben Highmore
automatic-update
bombsite
building
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AMVD
Category=JNF
Category=JNG
Category=JNLA
Category=VFX
Category=VFXC
childhood
children
community
construction
COP=United Kingdom
dancing
danger
delinquency
Delivery_Pre-order
den
design
disabilities
early years education
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_parenting
eq_society-politics
equipment
Eyck
fires
Friedberg
Frobel
Froebel
garden
gym
highrise
junk
kindergarten
Language_English
learning
London
loose parts
PA=Not yet available
parenting
permissive
playground
postwar
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
risk
shack
softlaunch
streets
youth
Product details
- ISBN 9781789149470
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 16 Sep 2024
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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In the decades following 1945 a new kind of playground emerged in Northern Europe and North America. Rather than slides, swings and roundabouts, the new playgrounds encouraged children to build shacks and invent their own entertainment. This book tells the story of how bombsites and waste ground were transformed into hives of activity by children and progressive educationalists. It shows how a belief in the imaginative capacity of children shaped a new kind of playground, and how designers and landscape architects reimagined what playgrounds could be.
Today, as we face unparalleled challenges, the enormous social ambition of these spaces is also an inspiring object lesson. Playgrounds offers a compelling account of pioneers, designers and charities over the decades, and is a testimony to the power of play.
Ben Highmore is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex. He is the author of The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain (2017) and Lifestyle Revolution: How Taste Changed Class in Late 20th-Century Britain (2023).
