In the neighborhood where my office is, there is a small park at the market entrance. This is a typical park with some trees, simple exercise equipment and a public restroom. I've been here for a few years, but I see people coming together once or twice a year when there are events held at the ward office. There are also traders around there, but the ones you see most often are drunks and drunks. Sometimes people open their tables in the morning, frowning on their eyes. Even if you crack down on the ward office, they will disappear like a flock of pigeons in the park.

It's hard to believe that this park, which even older adults are reluctant to go to, is a children's playground. The common slides and swings are dead, and exercise equipment set to the height of adults and a public toilet without a toilet for children make children leave. The children's playground had extreme conditions, but there are no children in the children's playground, which also has CCTV for safety and safety. Why?


"Let's bring the children back to the children's playground."

To solve this problem, playground designers began designing for children's eye level. During the design process, I asked the children's doctors to try to make the things they wanted, and they still offer many alternatives. He also made 'autonomous creative playgrounds' that he made himself rather than completed playgrounds and 'natural playgrounds' without rides. ('Self Playground' is now being built instead of the colorfully-made playground.) Of course, CCTVs were also attached for the safety of children. Today's playground, which reflects hardly what children want, is obviously better than it used to be, but it still feels lacking.


I have seen a fenced playground in New York. At first, it was too much, but I thought it was an inevitable choice for the safety of the children. There were not only children in the playground, but also adults who were accompanied by guardians. The negative impression of the fence seemed to disappear as I watched the sunny view of the children playing happily against the backdrop of the adults who gathered and laughed and talked. Not only did the fence protect children from adulterers doing wrong things in the park, but it also seemed to be able to solve the problem of environmental damage caused by animals coming and going to and from the park.

Gyeongin Children's Park in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, also had various problems. There was CCTV for the safety of the children, but it was not enough to prevent drunk fighting and seeing the toilet everywhere. Residents and playground designers headed back to the police and patrolled the police and concluded that 'my child is me'. A yellow container was placed in the corner of the park, and residents turned around to guard the playground. Eliminating distracting structures to help children see their favorite rides everywhere. It also made a walkway for the elderly to exercise around the park. Adults as well as children spent more time in the park, and bullies such as drunkards disappeared naturally.

Adults who visit the park are watching CCTV and watching around them, making it an unattractive space for those looking for a back door. In addition to monitoring the park, the yellow container also provides volunteer services to residents living alone.


How to bring children into a children's playground without children.
It is possible when you can bring adults together unexpectedly . In fact, designing a children's playground with residents often requires the need for a 'bench for adults' to observe the children. Children can run safely under the protection of adults.

This is the children's playground
That is why there should be a guardian 'space for adults'.

* Editor's Note: Kim Jong-dae Architects' 'Back to Architecture' series features the behind-the-scenes story of architecture in three themes of city, architecture, and market. Meet every other Saturday at 'In-It' .

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