Our Ethos - applying the integrity of nature in design

'Let nature be your teacher': (Wordsworth)

Observe almost any group of children playing in a natural setting and you will see inventiveness, creativity and stimulated imaginations.
A more natural playground encourages fantasy and make believe play, allows boys and girls to play together in egalitarian ways, and fosters a greater sense of wonder.
'Swedish studies found that children on asphalt playgrounds had play that was much more interrupted; they played in short segments. But in natural playgrounds, children invent whole sagas that they carry from day to day - making and collecting meaning' (Louv)
We want children to play in the thick of nature, in it, not beside it. We bring nature back in to provide the green setting and all the life of bugs, flowers and birds that it brings with it.

Curves

'The essence of play is that the sequence of actions is fluid and scattered. Play is at its core a behavioural kaleidoscope' (Henig)

Children don't play in straight lines, nature doesn't build with straight lines, so nor do we. To encourage the kaleidoscope, to go with the flow of children, we design in the round, a flow of spaces one to the next, around and back again. Not isolated features, but whole environments, webs of interlinking spaces and parts. We believe the round and the web encourages social play, interaction and engagement.

A Moveable Parts Theory

The more fixed, prescribed, the less fun.

'In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it. 'A loose parts toy', as Nicholson defines it, is open ended; children may use it in many ways and combine it with other loose parts through imagination and creativity. A typical list of of loose parts for a natural play area might include water, trees bushes, flowers and long grasses, a pond and the creatures within it, along with other living things, sand(best if it can be mixed with water), places to sit in, on, under; structures that offer privacy and views'. (Nicholson)

Instead of play boats and trains we build versatile features which become whatever a child's imagination can conjure up.

Not Just Gross Motor Skills

The average playground is great for gross motor skill development - climbing, balance, etc.

But there's more to life, play is a chance for young animals to learn and rehearse the skills they will need fr the rest of their lives, and to do so in a secure environment, where mistakes will have few consequences.

'Researchers have also observed that when children play in an environment dominated by play structures rather than natural elements, they establish their social hierarchy through physical competence; after an open grassy area was planted with shrubs, the quality of play in what the study termed 'vegetative rooms' was very different. Children used more fantasy play, and their social standing became based less on physical abilities and more on language skills, creativity and inventiveness'.(Louv)

Organics

We use untreated naturally durable wood such as larch, oak and chestnut. It is mostly sourced in Devon and milled locally. We know the carbon price of things and minimise our use of steel, cement and plastic, using recycled materials where possible.