School playgrounds - Playground@Landscape

serve what is happening on the neighbouring roads, the Wrangelstraße
and Mariannenstraße.
The pavilion courtyard, which is directly next to the football field,
contains an open-air classroom, a grove of trees and a beach volleyball
field on the site of the former school pavilion. It has not yet been possible
to install the wooden cubes intended to protect the cycle racks and
the sail over the open-air classroom because of lack of funds; the
demolition and removal of the contaminated asphalt that previously
covered the area proved to be very expensive.
The original low wall with its ornamental railings has been restored in
the front garden, and in keeping with the protected status of the construction,
it is set off by restrained hydrangea beds, lawn and other
forms of ground cover.
“Educational approach, landscape design, architecture and school
management must conform and complement each other if everything
is to run smoothly. Contribution and participation are essential factors
that determine the success of the project,” states Markus Schega, headmaster
of Nürtingen primary school.
The landscape architect responsible for completing the project,
Claus Herrmann of hochC Landschaftsarchitektur
(www.hochc.de) in Berlin comments as follows:
“We decided not to standardise the play equipment so that it can be
used by all age groups but have designed it to provide levels of challenge
appropriate to the individual age groups. For example, there is a
climbing tower that can only be accessed by a quite formidable ladder.
This is often a problem for first graders and a test for third graders, but
represents no particular difficulty for older primary school children. This
COVERSTORY
conforms to the mixed age teaching concept that is employed in the
case of grades one to six at Nürtingen primary school. Older children
help their younger peers (and vice versa...). This meant extensive
negotiations with the playground experts of the local authority, who
wanted the difficulty levels of the equipment to be downgraded to some
extent.
Because the ‘Extramural’ sector cannot be easily observed despite
the viewpoint provided by the crossover element, the original concept
was to only make it accessible during the longer breaks, when it could
be supervised. There were worries that there could be areas in the maze
that could not be easily monitored and that might be ‘anxiety-inducing’.
These areas are now much more open and are also monitored by
the teaching staff during breaks. But the headmaster Mr Schega and
the teachers of the incorporated nursery school also thought it would
be appropriate to provide play areas that are not so clearly visible and
which provide spaces where the children can withdraw and not be observed.
Following renovation of the school building and construction of the
outdoor areas, the rate of accidents among the children has fallen significantly
(some 70% fewer accidents). The headmaster, Mr Schega,
believes this is because the facilities for games, play and exercise are
now so exciting and diverse.
In collaboration with the children, ‘fair play’ regulations have been
drawn up and a corresponding film made that shows how children can
use the equipment without coming into conflict with each other (e.g. a
timetable to determine when individual children can use the popular
nest swing, rules for taking others into consideration).
The project cost a total of d550,000.”
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