Photo: Stefanie Grätz
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Premsela and Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte (SKOR) broached the possibility of opening school playgrounds to the public at a debate on 17 January. The organisations see schoolyards as a potential solution to the problem of shrinking urban public space.
“We want to express our concern about the gatedness of our societies,” says Premsela Programme Manager Roel Klaassen. “If you start to solve problems on a small scale, maybe later you can solve them on a larger scale.”
Designers and school and city officials discussed the issue at the Netherlands Architecture Institute. Proponents argued that making playgrounds public would create sorely needed community space and keep families with children in the cities. “We should give the schoolyards back to the city,” said architect Marlies Rohmer, one of the evening’s speakers. “There are enough lifeless places in the city.”
Continuing-education specialist Ton Notten, who also gave a talk during the evening, said, “Schoolyards could be treated as part of the neighbourhood.” Local residents as well as schools should have input in their design, he said.
Others countered that accessible schoolyards would be problematic and expensive to manage and that vandals and loitering teenagers could cause problems. But Rohmer suggested playgrounds could be locked and neighbours given keys. “Gates aren’t always a bad thing,” she said.
Wim Poppinga's playground for De Vijver school in The Hague. Photo: SKOR.
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Audience members said local governments had to take more responsibility if playgrounds were to go public. One, an architect who had helped to redesign a Utrecht schoolyard used by neighbours, spoke of her disappointment at officials’ failure to provide funding or help with maintainance.
The meeting launched a wider initiative by Premsela and SKOR to improve primary-school playgrounds in the face of changing urban environments.
