Imagination Playground by David Rockwell

Thursday 18 August 2011

David Rockwell during the London launch of the Imagination Playground (credit: Susan Smart)
New York based architect and designer David Rockwell was in London yesterday to mark the European launch of his groundbreaking Imagination Playground concept.

With a focus on loose parts, Imagination Playground is an interactive, transformable environment, that prompts children to manipulate their own playspace. The blocks are made from a cross-linked polyethylene foam, and the pieces are soft, lightweight, waterproof, and biodegradable.

Pop-up Imagination Playground at Coram's Fields, London
The Pop-Up Imagination Playground in London is located in Coram's Fields (near Russel Square tube station) until the 22nd August.

Pop-up Imagination Playground at Coram's Fields, London
The European launch of Rockwell's playground happened a few days after a new research showed that one in five children have never played in fields and farmland and one in six have never played in woods and forests. This compares with nearly 60% of adults who played there every week when they were children.

Pop-up Imagination Playground at Coram's Fields, London
This new concept of loose blocks, that can be easily stored and transported, may be a solution for this contemporary problem, since traditional playground have not evolved in the last decades.

Pop-up Imagination Playground at Coram's Fields, London
“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."