M. Paul Friedberg: Sceneries for the play in urban habitats

Abstract

In the 60s, the landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg renewed the playgrounds for children in a personal and particular way in New York City. For this renewal, he founded on the observation of the children’s excitement and the dynamism of the people when using the street and the square. The article highlights his concept of playground that offers different play styles, unpredictable movements and behavioural dynamics, which allowed him to explore the landscape and the architectural form of the children’s play spaces. The adding of a complete set of auxiliary facilities to promote the play led to imagine other possibilities of public space. These play areas turned out to be sceneries in urban habitats, where the interaction and juxtaposition of elementary architectures created environments of learning, discovery and personal development in which the time of the party resulted from the free use of space.