Playgrounds

Parents Banned from Playgrounds

The Watford Borough Council has voted that parents cannot play with their own children in local playgrounds because they haven't had a criminal background check.

October 29, 2009 - The Telegraph U.K.

The Importance of the Informal Playground

Unstructured play is a mainstay of childhood. But dense urban areas offer fewer opportunities for free-form playtime, writes Alex Marshall. Kids have to take what they can get, and often it's not much more than an empty parking lot.

August 27, 2009 - Regional Plan Association

100,000 Playgrounds

Advocacy group KaBOOM have launched a campaign to map play places across the U.S. called 100,000 Playspaces in 100 Days. The goal is to create a useful tool for planners for evaluating networks of parks and recreation.

April 28, 2009 - Next American City

Making A 'Playborhood'

Mike Lanza, an entrepreneur in Palo Alto, CA, is using his front yard as a place for his friends and neighbors to gather and play. Julia Galef from the Project for Public Spaces brings us this story.

April 10, 2009 - Julia Galef

Unused Open Spaces

Korean photographer Hosang Park's recent series exposes tiny, unknown 'parks' that are attached to housing developments around the world.

February 10, 2009 - BLDBLOG

Getting Kids Off the Street- And Up In The Air

Want to get kids off the street? Build playgrounds on top of skyscrapers, like in this retro-future design from 1957's Mechanix Illustrated.

January 15, 2009 - Modern Mechanix

The Interactive Playground

Architect David Rockwell has some new ideas about what makes a good public playground. With movable, buildable foam blocks, his experimental playground in Brooklyn gets kids actively and creatively involved in their play.

July 15, 2008 - The New York Times

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.