One of the most important periods in individual personal qualities development is a pre-school period as a basis to obtain some fundamental knowledge, skills, experiences and abilities of a future adult. The value of a child personal growth rises under conditions of a dynamic development of society, culture, international relationships and a high rate of technology growth. In this case, the developing potential of tot-lot area playing space is an overriding concern as part of a child information space [1].
Playground is a place for children, mostly of pre-school age, to play. It is located in a residential community and is shielded from roads. This is an area where there are elements of outdoor gaming equipment for children to organize the purposeful leisure time. The gaming equipment, in its turn, is a set of structural facilities that promote a physical and mental development and provide a beneficial effect on the social adaptation of a child.
All elements of the playground should be appropriate to the age, height, weight and physical abilities of a child. The playground should be equipped in accordance with the safety requirements for gaming elements, such as materials safety, free fall maximum height, safety areas. To design the playground, the light and the presence of space around elements should be also taken into account. The playground manufacturing is impossible without GOST Russia Certificate of Conformity [2].
On the streets of Tomsk, we can meet old, boring and unvaried playgrounds. To resolve this problem we designed «Tomsk motives» tot-lot area.
Since Tomsk is a historic town with a wooden endangered architectural heritage, we took a small «wooden» town in the style of Tomsk wooden buildings as the basis of the artistic appearance of the playground. Through this subject matter, children become familiar with the main attraction of Tomsk. Such a colorful wooden town will beautify any yard.
Today Tomsk is a major industrial, cultural, educational and scientific center of the country, which has great future prospects due to the increasing development of the region vast natural resources: the boundless taiga, powerful rivers, and the rugged beauty of Siberia virgin nature.
Against this background, there is a wooden architecture of the city. The architecture of the XVIIth century Tomsk is strict and simple. Wall and tower huge crowns, modest huts of the first settlers bear the signature of the bleak nature and the originality and clarity of forms, which required many centuries of folk art to be developed. Poetic forms of the Russian North architecture brought to Siberia possess by their artlessness and conciseness.
Then the wooden architecture gradually loses the original simplicity and harshness. In the second half of the XVIIIth century and the first half of the XIXth century, the stately homes of Russian baroque and classicism, skillfully and talentedly transformed for wood by local artisans, start to dominate in Tomsk architecture influenced by the styles of European part of Russia. Unfortunately, these monuments hardly ever survived in Tomsk [3]. Therefore, the problem of the cultural heritage revival of the city is very important for Tomsk.
«Tomsk motives» tot-lot area is a small wooden town. At the first level of the playground, there is a place for crayon drawing. These are wooden symbolically rendered Christmas trees that cover the slide. This slide is made of plastic because this material has a number of advantages and is well suited for this application.
Fig. 1. The slide and a drawing area
Under the second playground level, there are some gymnastic rings. They bring interest and diversity in leisure-time activities. The rings are made of a durable plastic; they do not have barbs, are very comfortable and safe. These hanger rings are mounted to the beams by a sturdy rope.
Fig. 2. Gymnastic rings
At the back of the playground, there is a net of ropes to climb and the entrance to the tower. The net is made of durable ropes and easily holds the weight of children. The ropes are made of various natural materials such as cotton or viscose fibers, so the ropes have hypoallergenic properties.
Fig. 3. Rope net to climb and the tower entrance
You can also find a swing on the tree. The seat is made of wood and the swing is fixed with robust ropes.
Fig. 4. Rope swing
The second floor of the playground is divided into two levels. A wall of flat houses that are decorated with carved casing moldings and other wooden elements separates the levels. The front balcony is located lower than the back balcony. To get there you can climb the winding staircase located in the tower.
A stainless steel bell that you can call is on the top of the tower. This element will diversify the tot-lot area and will make games more interesting.
The entire playground is made of wood. Due to modern technologies of wood treatment, the soft wood becomes stronger and more durable. The substances used to protect the wooden parts of equipment, do not contain arsenic and chromium.
To improve the wood quality the water-based paints and special additives to protect against UV and fungus are used.
All materials used are eco-friendly and safe.
Fig. 5. “Tomsk motives” tot-lot area
This project showed the need for an integrated approach to professional design of gaming facilities for children that includes the social and emotional challenges, sensory integration, as well as the formation of cognitive simplicity and opportunity to discover and research for children of different age groups.
References:
1. Chiao Shubey, Krivutch S. V. Principles of playground space design for handicapped children. Theory of mastership. 2015 (1). P. 54–57
2. GOST R 52169–2003: Children playground equipment. Equipment safety and test methods. General requirements. URL: http://protect.gost.ru/document.aspx?control=7&baseC=6&page=1&month=2&year=2008&search=&id=130193. (access date: 12.04.2015)
3. Dreizin E. I., Pasechnik А. F. Wooden architecture. Wooden architecture of Tomsk. (1975). URL: http://www.perunica.ru/zodchestvo/5639-eidreyzin-afpasechnik-derevyannaya-arhitektura-tomska-1975-g.html. (access date: 02.04.2015)
