Questions to Ask Before Building a Playground
Playgrounds make a wonderful addition to any community. These spots allow children to run and play, getting off their electronics so that they can receive a good dose of sunshine and exercise. Playgrounds and public parks are also meeting places where kids and adults alike can socialize and make new friends. Whether you live in a city, suburb or town, you need these places where you can take your kids and get out of the house.
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If you feel like there’s a lack of playgrounds in your community, you may be unsure how to go about getting a new one installed in your neck of the woods. A great playground needs a great game plan, so here are some questions to ask as your playground planning gets underway.
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- Where Will You Build Your Playground?
- Who Can Help You Decide Where to Build Your Playground?
- How Do You Create a Fun and Natural Playground Environment?
- What’s the Ideal Land and Soil to Build On?
- How Can You Get Your Community Involved?
- Is Fundraising a Good Way to Get Your Community Involved?
- What Are Some Additional Elements to Consider?
Where Will You Build Your Playground?
Building a wonderful playground isn’t just about choosing the right play equipment. Finding the perfect site should be your first and most crucial consideration. Play needs a home, and you’ll want to choose a space that’s fun, convenient and, most importantly, safe.
You’ll also need to keep the needs of your community in mind. When you’re searching for a site, make sure there’s ample space for your playground layout, including:
- Active and quiet play
- Playground equipment
- Enough activities to keep kids interested
- Amenities like benches, restrooms and parking
- Emergency and maintenance vehicle access
Who Can Help You Decide Where to Build Your Playground?
If you’re not sure where to build your playground, ask others in your community for their input for a possible site. Even if you don’t have experience building playgrounds, some individuals in your town may know what it takes to create safe and fun play environments. Contacting them will benefit you as you consider potential site locations. Potential people to contact include:
- Local park and recreation department
- Recreational facilities
- Community parks
- Schools
- Other organizations that offer play opportunities for kids
How Do You Create a Fun and Natural Playground Environment?
Even if you already know where your playground will be built, there are factors you need to consider. While kids may only notice the playground equipment, these spaces are actually a blend of both natural and artificial features. The key is finding the right mix to give the best play experience.
Here are some topography elements you’ll need to consider as you get your playground plan underway:
- Landscape: Will you design your playground around the existing trees, shrubs and flowers, or implement new landscaping?
- Pathways: Your pathways must connect different elements in your playground, including the parking lot or picnic tables to the play area.
- Lighting: If your playground is open after dark, you’ll need lighting to ensure the area remains safe.
- Fencing: Many parents will appreciate fencing in the play area, especially if your playground is near moderate or high traffic.
- Surfacing: Whether it’s loose-fill or hybrid surfacing, your playground surfacing will protect children from fall-related injuries and improve the overall experience offered by your play space.
What’s the Ideal Land and Soil to Build On?
When considering your playground layout, don’t forget to keep potential land and soil issues in mind. Having level land is one of the most critical elements. Building on uneven ground is extremely difficult, so you’ll need to find an area that’s relatively flat. If you choose a site that needs major grading, it will cost you both time and money.
Other questions you’ll need to have answered about your site’s land and soil follow:
- What type of soil is present?
- Are standing groundwater or seepage problems that you’ll need to have addressed?
- Is there adequate drainage?
If you want to get your community involved in your project, remember to think about who this playground is for. These safe spaces are an opportunity to serve the needs of the kids in your community, so it’s best to pick a location that’s within walking distance to the greatest number of families in your town. If you’re not sure where that is, pick a site near:
- Elementary schools
- Libraries
- Neighborhoods that are highly populated
- Outdoor recreational activities
- Entertainment facilities
One of the best ways to get your community involved in your playground is to help them take ownership of the project. When families see how this play space will benefit their children, they’ll want to generate support for it.
You’ll need as many avenues of financial support as are available to you to create a playground your community will love. This support can include resources from your local government, grants, income from big local businesses and more. That said, a community-funded public playground created through local fundraising efforts presents an amazing opportunity. Community fundraising doesn’t just earn money — it can also get your entire community excited and involved in your playground building efforts.
What Are Some Additional Elements to Consider?
Once you have your location picked out and funding in place, there are still plenty of things to consider. Planning your playground requires a lot of organization and forethought. You’ll need to do quite a bit of research before the building process even begins, and you may want to find a core team to help. By assigning specific roles to others, you can share the workload.
Other variables to consider during your playground planning process include:
- Climate: It’s important to know the common climate conditions where your playground is being built. That way, you’ll identify elements to include in your playground layout, such as rain coverings and shady spots if the play space is exposed to direct sunlight.
- Utilities: Identifying existing underground utilities will help you avoid running into potential problems later when it’s time to prep your playground site.
- Visibility: Your playground should include seating options and clear visibility so that parents and other guests can easily supervise the space and have a comfortable place to sit, rest and socialize.
- Accessibility and inclusion: From the children on the playground to the parents, grandparents and other adults supervising, everyone should have equal opportunity on the playground, regardless of their level of ability. Make sure you fully understand the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines. You may even want to go beyond these rules so that every child will be able to take part in the fun.
Get the Planning Resources You Need With Playworld
From choosing a location to creating a layout to selecting playground equipment, every great playground starts with planning. Fortunately, Playworld has assembled all the information you need in one handy reference. Our Playground 101 Guide will answer many of your questions and help you build a smart game plan for your community’s new playground.
That’s right — poorly-designed play spaces aren’t inclusive or engaging for all children, and therefore go unused. With the amount of money and planning that goes into developing a new play space, you want to ensure your investment pays off.
A well-designed playground considers differences in age, interest, and ability — creating spaces for everyone to learn, develop, and socialize.
Every play space should be unique to its community, and we’re here to help you design a custom playground that both children and adults alike will treasure for years to come.
1. Determine Your Playground Goals
Before you get started designing an outdoor play space, ask yourself, “Why are we building a playground?”
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- Do you want a safe and welcoming space where children in your community can make connections and play?
- Do you want outdoor fitness equipment for adults to promote their physical health?
- Is this playground intended to be a core instrument for early childhood development and learning?
Beyond the playground users, what other people have agendas for creating the play space? Consider your stakeholders and their goals and business objectives, which may include but are not limited to community engagement/support/growth, appearances, inclusion, safety, etc. It’s important to embrace the fact that your playground will likely have multiple goals, however, you should be able to prioritize them.
Before moving on to the next step, work with your influencers to rank these in order of significance.
Your goal(s) will influence all your design considerations, so this is a crucial first step. By considering a variety of opinions and motivations, you encourage greater buy-in in the design process and satisfaction with the final outcome.
Timeline
If you have a specific timeline to stick to — like building an elementary playground by the start of the school year — be very strategic about breaking the process down into manageable, realistic steps to achieve your goal. A playground design and installation team can help you develop a timeline specific to your project and give you their promise to stick to it!
Budget & Funding
Before you can move forward with designing a commercial playground, you need a clear understanding of how much play spaces cost and how much you have to spend. Because commercial playgrounds cost a considerable amount of money and time to build, most can benefit from playground funding assistance.
Religious organizations and churches, schools, early childhood education, parks and recreation, and even community organizations can qualify for grants for playgrounds or buying programs— saving you thousands of dollars on your project. Other playground design companies offer financing optionsto make paying off your playground easy and realistic.
Community Support
Lastly, community engagement early on in your planning phase builds awareness and credibility for the project, adds value to both the playground and larger play space design, and creates excitement and a strong sense of ownership within the community. It also gives the project leaders and the technical experts the opportunity to publicly acknowledge and champion the community’s ideas and recommendations, which further reinforces that this is a community-centered and community-led project.
3. Consider Your Playground Site Location
This is another big step in designing a custom playground: knowing where it’ll be located.
- Are you able to nest it amongst existing trees to incorporate nature around your space?
- Will there be shade over the playground?
- Can that slope be adjusted to allow for proper drainage?
- How many square feet of space is available?
When determining the playground’s location, it’s also pertinent to consider your supervision points, institutional context, and if the site is an urban or rural setting. Choosing a location that can serve the greatest number of families — especially within walking distance of neighborhoods, and other meaningful destinations — will help increase usage.
These are just a few site location considerations. A professional playground design company can help you confirm the rest. The location of your play system will ensure proper safety, accessibility, and convenience, as well as influence the functionality and longevity of your playground — and, therefore, is not something you should wait to determine.
Before finalizing your exact playground site, it’s important to have your space reviewed by a CPSI-certified playground designer. They will give you the final thumbs up on whether that’s a suitable plot to break ground or if adjustments have to be made to make the space ready for construction.
4. Look for Design Inspiration
After you know your playground’s budget and where you can build, it’s time for the fun part: dreaming up ideas for the design. As with any design project, it’s often wise to find inspiration in the work of others before getting started on your own plan. For the best playground design ideas, we recommend you:
5. Get Your Playground Design Site Plan & Renderings
All great projects start with a concrete design plan. A thorough site plan ensures the installation crew has everything they need to build your playground while staying on time and on budget. The visual rendering of your playground also allows the community to see your goal come to life, building excitement and support for your project.
Choose Your Playground Equipment
Playground equipment is the entire reason children play in your park and is one of the most important selections for your playground design. As a general rule, we suggest choosing playground equipment that will engage children from 2-5 years old along with older children from 5-12, though your choices will vary based on your target audience.
There are many types of playground equipment that go into creating an inclusive play space, including categories such as components, freestanding, site furnishings, and more. To begin assembling your playground, learn more about the types of equipment commonly found in most play systems here.
Choose Your Playground Surfacing
There are a few unique types of playground surfacing that all provide adequate safety surfacing for children. They each have their unique benefits along with installation costs and long-term maintenance costs.
When choosing your surfacing, remember that it’ll need to endure weather, wear, and tear. Here’s an informative playground surfacing comparison article that details the benefits and costs of each style of playground surfacing. The thing to keep in mind when choosing playground surfacing is the critical fall height, so you know it’s safe for children to fall on it while playing. Ensure it’s the necessary depth of safety surfacing to protect children from the max attainable fall from your playground equipment.
Connect With the Right Playground Design Team
Designing a playground isn’t something you should do alone. From the intricate details of the site plan to the 2 and 3D model renderings of your park, leaving the small details to the professionals ensures nothing is missed and your play system is installed properly.
When choosing the right design team, be sure to review their customer reviews and explore any case studies to see their work in action. Be sure to look at how the playground providers helped the communities reach their goals and create long-lasting structures they can be proud of.
Play & Park Structures has its own Design Team who is qualified and certified in National Playground Safety Inspection (NPSI) The Design Team reviews your area, product interests, and safety standards to design a one-of-a kind playground structure. We work hand-in-hand with your Play Consultant to get the best design possible for your space, children’s ages, and the activities that you require.
The Design Team has also been trained in designing inclusive playground structures. Every element of design is thoughtfully considered, down to the simple idea of playground flow and what’s fun on the structure. It’s an added advantage to have your structure designed by our experts.
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