From Passive to Active: How Can Playgrounds Awaken Children's Creativity? (1)

In a traditional amusement park

Children are merely "users" of the facilities. They are guided to experience the pre-designed amusement equipment, play along the pre-determined routes, and participate in the games according to the preset rules. But this kind of experience is often passive, with almost no chance to explore independently or exert one's creativity.

In a traditional amusement park composed of standardized produced slides and swings

When children are confined in the cage of the role of "passive consumers", and when the playgrounds in the city have become a stereotyped pile of plastic and steel bars, and when the angles of slides and the swings are precisely calculated as "safety values", have we forgotten the most primitive magic of games, that wild growth of measuring the world with our own hands and reconstructing cognition with failure?

Have you ever thought that there are actually more ways to start a romantic childhood for children? For instance, breaking the traditional model and allowing children to participate in the design and construction of the amusement park. Imagine if children could personally participate in the creation process of the park, they would no longer be passive "users", but true "creators" and "masters".

In fact, this is not a new concept that emerged only now. As early as 1897, in his first teaching article "My Educational Creed", the American philosopher and educator John Dewey first proposed the theoretical prototype that children should participate in the shaping of the environment through practice.

The systematic practice of this concept began in 1943 when Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sørensen conducted a revolutionary experiment - establishing the first "garbage playground" in the Emdrup district of Copenhagen.

There are no prefabricated facilities in the amusement park; children are the actual builders. Only tools (such as hammers, saws, nails, etc.) and recycled materials (such as wooden boards, tires, bricks, etc.) are provided on site, allowing children to build tree houses, dig tunnels, design climbing structures, etc. through independent collaboration.

This case is widely recognized as the world's first garbage playground independently built by children within the framework provided by adults, and its essence is "supported creative freedom". Children hold the design and construction rights, while adults merely act as resource providers and risk managers. This model laid the foundation for modern participatory children's space design and remains the standard paradigm for global adventure playgrounds to this day.

Enhancing children's creativity is not only about engaging in hands-on practice but can also be done earlier, such as starting from design, allowing children to fully experience the joy of letting their imagination take root.