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Dragon playscape by Kinya Maruyama - pushes the boundaries

This playground is located in the city-center of Nantes, in front of the “Château des Ducs de Bretagne”. The dragon is made of locust and chestnut trees, a garden is suspended over its backbone, a misting system is settled into its nostrils, its tongue is a slide, and children run into the nets under its belly. Three imaginary animals face him.




Sometimes a non-designer of playscapes pushes the boundaries of what you can call a playground and a work of public art ..A play sculpture ...SO VISUALLY INTERESTING that at first, you don't know what it is or how to use or explore its sculptural play forms. Where ART meets PLAY !.... This dragon playscape by Kinya Maruyama I think pushes the boundaries of what is truly possible in public playscape design and just invites all to explore and discover all its play potential without being descriptive ...The imagination of the child can run riot and the structure just disappears and that feeling of being in the moment is discovered....So many ways to enjoy it ...and I'm sure no two visits would be the same for any lucky child who has this as their local playground.....Sometimes playground designers/ landscape architects forget their inner child of 10 and are too focused on soft fall surfaces and generic adult play theming for children to use without any real consideration of all the varieties of play and play inclusiveness...Artists and Sculptors are free to explore and experiment with shapes/forms/textures and materials and colours...and ways to play and use their sculptures/play-artscapes..THAT then are made safe and apply all construction standards and safety requirements constraints are considered . BUT NOT the main driving force in the design process or Council's and Public realm playscape's obsession with maintenance...If council workers can't use a leaf blower and get a rider mower around all areas of a space for the easiest and quickest upkeep then radical playscape designs like Kinya Maruyama's would never see the light of day. Again somebody took a RISK WITH THIS PLACE and had the vision to let Kinya loose and create something special and Like NO OTHER PLAYSCAPE..creating a community feature HUB and Playscape for all abilities..and greenscape amenities that local government councils should provide as the simple norm for their communities... the rewards are just played forward.

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