Child's Play: Reimagining Playgrounds

Move over Chuck-E-Cheese ballpit and traditional playgrounds with your slides and monkeybars!  The Mother Nature Network posted a profile of an amazing idea I'm surprised I've never seen before--crocheted playgrounds!

This installation was done in 2000 and is located in Takino Suzuran National Park, Hokkaido, Japan. Picture linked from the MNN.

This installation was done in 2009 in the Hakone Open Air Museum, Hakone, Japan. Picture linked from the MNN.

The artist, Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, originally exhibited her artworks in museums, but went on to create these artistic play spaces in Japan through NetPlayWorks starting in 1979.  The photos of children playing on these structures with joyous abandon are tempting me to plan our next vacation around one of these sites!  Even better, I would love to see one constructed in the United States.

More photos from various installations can be found on the NetPlayWorks gallery.