"There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in."
--Graham Greene
One of the benefits of being an only child as I already told you was being able to choose my own clothes. On a very basic level this doesn't seem so important, but somehow, besides giving me an incredible fashion sense, I think it helped form my ability to create and imagine different worlds. The clothes were a vehicle for letting me inhabit, try out, and play with different realities. I once worked as a production assistant on a documentary about play and how it relates to happiness. One of the interviews I remember the most was with this professor, or psychologist (I really can't remember, too many damaged brain cells). But I do remember more or less what she said: while some benefits of play are obvious—fitness, fun, and negotiating skills. The subtle, even sacred, way play enriches children's lives is not so easy to define. Excitement builds when children of all abilities are included in a playful and rich engagement with each other and the living world. Play, the way in which we do it and where we do it defines our ability to navigate the world. The observation and antics we bring to our first environments are transferred to every landscape of endeavor that follows whether in business, science, architecture or the arts. In a sense creativity develops through risk-taking, storytelling and secret world building. Today children spend less time outdoors, have less public places to play and the places that are left have a hard time competing with television, internet and gaming. I am not one of those who say that these things are bad and have a negative impact on our children. I am a realist and know that the world that they will inherit will be a technologically complex mesh of digital interaction, one in which they will need skills they learn through playing video games and online interaction to succeed. But, just like children need a balanced diet of food, they also need a balanced environment of play. One that encompasses both the digital and the natural world. One of my dreams has always been to build a playground. I don't know if I will ever have a chance to do it, but I find it fun to imagine what it would be and look like. I would want a space that not only provides a place to play for children, like most playgrounds, but a multifaceted space that brings together children, teenagers and adults. A place where the experience of play can be shared. A place where just like a library that has librarians to help visitors find specific books they are looking for, my playground would have volunteer "play monitors" that would act not as policeman or authority figures but as enablers of play. Below I have included some bits and pieces of playgrounds that inspire me or I find interesting. Well, I hope you have a wonderful day and find the time to get outside and play a little.
Imagination Playground at Brownsville, New York from Imagination Playground on Vimeo.
I love "Imagination Playground." It is the perfect embodiment of my idea. A playground that is constructed entirely by the children who play in it, where the only limitation is their imagination.
These next two photos are of play spaces that incorporate the fanciful and design. I think that all to often design is ignored when it comes to thinking about spaces for children and many play spaces end up looking like something out of the 1950's. Creating a space that is beautiful and design rich helps children to develop at an early age an appreciation for how the material can and should interact with the natural world. The images hopefully will stay with them through their adult life and bits and pieces of this information will influence them when thinking about urban housing projects, bridges, skyscapers and communities. 
The space below is in Spain. While I don't think is a marvel of modern architecture or even that beautiful, I do love the idea and would want to incorporate something like this in my park that seamlessly flows into the children's area. Everything below was built with inexpensive or recycled materials and the park itself replaced an otherwise abandoned lot. "Factoría Joven helps attract the restless, unemployed street youth off the streets and provides them with a place to skateboard, hip-hop dance, climb rocks, create graffiti — whatever they would otherwise do in much more sinister surroundings. There are also a computer lab and a dance studio, both 800-square-meters in size. Meeting rooms and spaces for theater, video and music are all included."
The last image is of the tactile dome in San Francisco. Something that could be experienced by Adults, children and teenagers. The photo is black because, well, it is a space you explore in complete darkness. The link has a better explanation.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/tactile_dome/press_release.php
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