In the miniature world of a five year old, nothing is quite as exciting—and full of possibility—as playing outside. Even in the age of the iPad, communing with the outdoors puts the world at a child’s fingertips like no other experience, fostering exploration, creativity and experimentation. This semester, a group of graduate and undergraduate architecture students are examining the elements of meaningful, outdoor play—and how that influences building—for UMD’s smallest students: the pre-school and kindergarten students at the College of Education’s Center for Young Children (CYC). Through a program called Come Alive Outside, the students are collaborating with the landscape architecture program, CYC teachers and the preschool students themselves, to expand the school’s existing, traditional playground into one that connects, excites and teaches.
The project is part of Assistant Professor Powell Draper’s Architecture Technology course, which provides an understanding of building structural systems, methods and materials. While the class typically takes on a modest design and construction project as part of the course, this is a more ambitious task, developed by Draper, whose daughter attends the school, and Steven Cohan, a Professor of Practice in the Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Department who drives past the preschool daily.
“In past semesters the students have designed and built model structures or other small projects to test out the concepts learned in this class,” explained Draper, “but Steve brought this opportunity to me and I thought it would be a great experience. It allows the students to collaborate with the landscape architecture students and school staff, plus design a very worthwhile project.”
The architecture students’ vision for the outdoor space has opportunities for preschoolers to exercise little muscles and imaginations with the addition of a tubular hillside slide and a curving bridge. To arrive at the final designs, students had to marry the somewhat fanciful ideas of the preschoolers with safety code and terrain. Also important is durability; material choices have to be considered to ensure the structures last for generations of students.
“It’s true that the initial designs were a bit larger than life,” said graduate student Renata Southard, who is part of the bridge team. “We wanted to create spaces that were experiential and fun, but also safe and somewhat indestructible.”
Other amenities developed by the landscape architecture team include a weather station, organic vegetable garden and water harvesting system. The students are doing more than design work; as part of the project, they must develop the assembly instructions, source the materials and build the structures on site, a considerable effort that commences on Maryland Day.
Learn more about how you can fund the University playground here.
UMD was one of four schools nation-wide who completed the Come Alive Outside Design Challenge, a program where college, high school, elementary and pre-school students work together with landscape professionals to design and build engaging outdoor learning environments at schools and childcare facilities. The project has been selected for the most recent round of projects for UMD’s fundraising platform, Launch UMD. Launch UMD helps fund campus community projects that advance innovation, education and learning through crowd-funding. The funds raised will cover materials and some professional landscaping—all of the students’ design efforts and construction time are donated. If the students can garner enough funding, it is expected the playground will be completed in May.
To learn more about the CYC and the Come Alive Outside playground effort, visit the school’s website.