Five Fields Play Structure

This play structure is situated on the sloping landscape of a mid-century modern common land, where neighborhood kids enjoy a shared backyard.

In the ensuing 60+ years homeowners have come and gone but the community and its care and appreciation for the common land remain.

They wanted something that would challenge the kids without any singularly functional elements.

While there are irreducible standards that manage accessibility and function in the daily lives of adults, play is neither standard nor strictly functional.

For this reason, these spaces are accessible to adults, but have been shrunk in order to slow the adults, liberating the kids to fly through the spaces.

Twenty-foot tall vertical elements contribute to the structure at one moment, but extend into the landscape—from function to whimsy.

The colorful graphics suggest entries and key moments, without overtly labeling them. Pre-conceived architectural elements like doors and stairs do exist, but lead to nowhere.

These decisions produce escalating challenges for the kids; mitigating risk and ensuring the correct age-range have access to the more treacherous areas instead of withholding them entirely. Older kids climb over while younger crawl under.