Playgrounding: the Playground as a Symbolic Form of Society and Design Culture

Talking about playgrounds means telling stories about the definition of urban space, creativity, contestation, and reflections on the culture of childhood: the playground is a symbolic form that takes us to the anthropological heart of our social relations.

This book, the result of research by curator and design historian Domitilla Dardi that started online, opens with a “history in images” of playgrounds: an overview of projects by artists, designers and architects who have tackled the creation of playgrounds over time. Several creators were then asked to imagine new playgrounds for this book: so here are 9 ideas put forward by Paul Cox, matali crasset, Konstantin Grcic, Martí Guixé, Lemonot, Gianluca Malgeri and Arina Endo, Studio Ossidiana, Parasite 2.0 and Olimpia Zagnoli, who freely interpreted the book’s double page as a playground.

‘Playgrounding’ also explores the meaning of playgrounds through many images: from the photographs of Stefano Cerio and Fujio Kito to those sourced from the digital archives of world-leading libraries, as well as shots by renowned artists on the theme of merry-go-rounds.