DESIGN

‘Children and teenagers being seen and heard in shared public space are the hallmarks of a society at ease with itself’.

OUR STARTING POINT when embarking on a design commission is always: How will people respond to a given space in use? Of course the aesthetics are important, but they are often relatively easy to attend to. The more complex, sensitive task is to ‘think human’, to ask the questions that include:

• How would people like to feel in a given space?
• What will help make people – children, teenagers, adults – feel secure?
• What affordances might be created that will prompt and support intergenerational, informal sociability? The Village Green perspective.
• What do children and teenagers like to do, as distinct from what they are supposed to like to do?
• What is the best possible balance to be struck between the need to hold down maintenance costs and the imperative of creating valued places?

PLAYLINK has been at the forefront of the movement to create more natural play environments and a shared public realm enjoyed by all.

Our landscape architects, public realm and play specialists design parks and green spaces, public squares, designated playgrounds, ‘village greens’ within social and mixed tenure housing, school and nursery outdoors, and hard landscape ball courts and wheel parks that complement and enhance the local environment.

PLAYLINK designs and implements schemes for a wide range of clients in a range of spaces and settings – see our portfolio. We provide a comprehensive service from scheme inception through contract administration to the completion on the ground.

We recognise both the scope and the limitations of consultation. We aim to make consultations a shared engagement with ideas, widening the appreciation of what is possible, what is desirable.

Conversational by nature, with a strong track record of working with a wide range of communities, clients and interests, we are effective communicators.

We work with the best: our craft people, artists and specialists create unique structures and features, using reclaimed materials, where possible, as part of a general approach to place making.

We have acknowledged expertise in ‘risk issues’, and deploy risk-benefit assessment at the design stage, and then subsequently, as the design develops.

Our design work includes large and complex park schemes, for example:

• Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds, requiring Scheduled Monument Consent;
• Creating the playable Carville Hall Park;
• Innovative water play scheme at Inwood Park.

We also act as advisors on major schemes, for example, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Kings Cross Central development.

We undertake smaller schemes, for example:

• Rachel Keeling Nursery School;
• Gascoigne Estate.