Solarium, Landform

These images are really interesting to me because they are much more innovative than some designs for public spaces. The using of the gradient in the hill - or building of earth to create a gradient. Both of the pieces below seem to be making a feature of the angles.

a+t Espacios Colectivos in common III, Solarium La Chappelle St-Luc, 2006 pg 26

In the 'Solarium' group, the bench, is created with strange angles in it and more obviously the scale, promoting different types of usage - for instance sunbathing, meeting with larger groups of people. Again this is much more unusual then the norm, and very aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.

http://www.civic.org.uk/burnley1.html

In PASW image the designer seems to have created a hill from flat land through adding earth, which I think is an interesting use of the space, creating a small amphitheatre with steps into the earth.

Play areas

Look.... Jen Ghel

And a great blog about playgrounds, playscapes is written by Arcady. Her site is much more useful than trawling through all the manufacturers sites: Arcady's blog gives several good examples of innovative playgrounds where you can see the designs are creative and considered.

Their is one link on the website referring to some designs for street furniture here. The work is interesting but quite unsuccessful I think, because the execution of ideas has been poorly done, but the premise is interesting and potentially worth considering. And another idea which I have to say I was put off by because I think this is more of an "happening/encounter" than an actual functioning object (although this might just be my own take) is the laughing swing, designed by Michel Rinot.

Arcady has also looked at skate parks, a great example of one is Cantelowe Skate Park in London, which was created by Wheelscape in October 2009.


There are some video links that show the way the skatepark has been received and it seems to be a huge success, just from the rendered image above this looks as though it is a great shape and move forward from some of the more cluncky examples you can see dotted over the UK.