This innovative play landscape of wild and natural design rejects preconceived notions of a playground in favour of a more natural approach to play.

A big thank you to Adam White, Past President of the Landscape Institute and Fellow of the Landscape Institute for an interesting, knowledgeable and engaging day at Dinton Pastures Country Park
It was brilliant to hear from Adam, Co-Director at Davies White Landscape Architecture and their approach and experience to designing play landscapes with the aim of reconnecting people, place and nature. Davies White is known for their remarkably engaging and bespoke nature play spaces - ‘Forget metal equipment and multi-coloured rubber surfaces, our innovative wild design rejects preconceived notions of a playground in favour of a more natural approach to play.’

Adam shared their intriguing design process, successful interactive sessions with children and parents, challenges they’ve faced on varying projects and several inspiring stories during their process of creating the @the_rhs Back to nature garden with HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.
These events organised the LI Branches are always a brilliant opportunity to meet other designers and Landscape Professionals, for a day of learning, networking and play. The Dinton park play area, which opened in 2014 was still a new concept back then of nature play and designing with natural elements. The play landscape was designed with the emphasis on tactile and sensory play, to include giant nest towers, monkey bars, woodland obstacles, funnel trap nests, secret hobbit holes and giant swinging and climbing logs are some of the exciting features to be found here.

We of course explored the play landscape at Dinton park, which was great to see the changes and progress since it was constructed 10 years ago - the magnificent growth of the willow tunnel, the beautiful birch trees glistening in the afternoon sunshine and the play areas still in fill use with families having an amazing day out.
Play England Design Principles:
A very useful discussion from the day was regarding the importance of maintenance and aftercare, which applies to all landscaped projects although the mindset and approach to this does vary between clients, whether it's a private play area or a council play landscape.
As always, landscape architects discuss with clients the importance of maintenance, which can include elements such as retaining aesthetics, preventing disease and pests, regular health and safety reviews, promotes healthy plant growth, preserving the longevity of the installed elements and more often than not, more cost effective in the long run.

We noticed there were a few play items which had been sectioned off for various reasons, although it was sad to see the inground trampoline was one of them - as the image shared here. Davies White specifically included these to offer a unique play element to those with mobility issues, as these are designed to be used by a carer/parent to bounce a child in a wheelchair, which is a limited experience to those bound in wheelchairs.
The only issues we could see with this, was that the edging pieces had come loose, and the trampoline itself was in good condition. This should not be an onerous task to sort out, which would then allow the use of this play element, however it appears this has been left in disrepair by Wokingham Borough Council for quite some time, and unsure whether that's due to lack of staff, budget or inspections?
A snippet of an image of the model created by Davies White while designing this play landscape. Models are a brilliant way for clients and stakeholders to understand the scale of the design, varying heights and interesting features in the landscape, rather than struggling to understand a 2D flat plan, and how the varying spaces could work together to create an exciting landscape.
Do get in touch if you would like more information or support with your landscape.
Thanks for reading, any questions, we would love to hear from you!
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