Temporal playscape design within an existing landscape dynamic

Abstract

Designing within the landscape, architects are often challenged with the dilemma of what to build and to what extent if anything. The natural environment offers an architecture of its own parameters and rules. Building within those established parameters, architects must inform their design accordingly and responsibly. Taking cues from natural environmental processes, the design for a contemporary playscape within existing environmental conditions provides a refuge from city life for Boston area children. The design balances between the designed landscape and the natural landscape. Natural processes over time erode the playscape away so that the transformation is perceived by the children who return regularly to the site. Considerations of natural soil behavior, water drainage patterns, soil erosion, and plant invasion are instrumented into the final articulation of the playscape.