Issue 147 May-June 2018

13 Architects and Designers Imagine Playscapes of the Future

From a clever slide sculpture to a hide-and-seek–inspired teahouse, this is what play is going to look like in the years ahead.

Observatory Slide

“The Observatory Slide is a multifunctional playground structure precisely shaped by its location. A half-buried fiber cement U-channel cantilevers out of the ground parallel to the axis of the earth. It serves as a sundial, a stargazing instrument, a shading device, a micro-solar power plant, and a waterslide. Children and adults enter the installation through an elliptical pool. They can then crawl up on the dry sides of the channel or hold on to a central railing, through which one can also see Polaris. Next to this pipe are perfectly oriented photovoltaic panels that produce the power for the water pump needed to lubricate the slide.”