If someone had come to us yesterday and told us that children's playgrounds should be more dangerous and made out of monochromatic concrete, we would definitely not have been on board. But that's only because it would have been before we read Wired's piece on the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)'s exhibition on Brutalist playgrounds of the mid-twentieth century. British design studio Assemble and artist Simon Terrill recreated some of the playspaces out of foam instead of concrete for the exhibited, although, as Assemble's Joseph Halligan points out, "A playground, I think, in today's eyes, is something that's very soft and safe. These concrete playscapes that we're looking at in this exhibition pose massive risks. Risk is something that should be thought about rather than something that should be avoided entirely ... When you make play without risk, there's a question about whether or not that's dangerous in another way." We're legitimately sold. More dangerous playgrounds!
· Nobody Does Playgrounds Like the Brutalists [Wired]
· The Brutalist Playground [Architecture]
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