Playgrounds: The Experimental Years

Highmore, Ben

ISBN 10: 1789149479 / ISBN 13: 9781789149470

Published by Reaktion Books, 2024

About this Item

The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Seller Inventory # GOR013968813

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Playgrounds: The Experimental Years
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789149479
• ISBN 13: 9781789149470
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In the decades following 1945 a new kind of playground emerged in Northern Europe and North America. Rather than slides, swings and roundabouts, the new playgrounds encouraged children to build shacks and invent their own entertainment. This book tells the story of how bombsites and waste ground were transformed into hives of activity by children and progressive educationalists. It shows how a belief in the imaginative capacity of children shaped a new kind of playground, and how designers and landscape architects reimagined what playgrounds could be. Today, as we face unparalleled challenges, the enormous social ambition of these spaces is also an inspiring object lesson. Playgrounds offers a compelling account of pioneers, designers and charities over the decades, and is a testimony to the power of play.

About the Author

Ben Highmore is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex. He is the author of The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain (2017) and Lifestyle Revolution: How Taste Changed Class in Late 20th-Century Britain (2023).