Imagination Playground 2 Favorite 

When award-winning architect David Rockwell started spending time in playgrounds with his young children, he was disturbed by the lack of imagination and variation in the way kids interact with standardized playground equipment. He spent five years developing the Imagination Playground, seeking private-public partnerships to see it realized. The work of his firm, Rockwell Group, has been internationally recognized for its broad array of projects, from restaurants to stage sets, hotels to historic restorations, art programming to interactive design.

Inspired by Froebel blocks and adventure playgrounds, the Imagination Playground features a wide range of elements that allows children to create their own environments and their own course of play. Since the first Imagination Playground opened in Manhattan (with the support of several city agencies), Rockwell has developed a more portable, scalable version packed into a cart or box that can quickly transform small, unused spaces into dynamic playgrounds. It has been deployed in hundreds of locations worldwide, including Haiti and Bangladesh.

In creating the Imagination Playground — a playground with lots of loose parts for children to create their own play spaces — Rockwell realized that many of the elements with the greatest value to children were inexpensive and portable. Although traditional playgrounds can easily cost in the millions to build, portable imagination playgrounds can be put together for less than $10,000.

With giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric, and crates at their fingertips, children have the potential to build and explore endless possibilities. Imagination Playground addresses a broader spectrum of play needs through opportunities for fantasy and cooperative play, in addition to the traditional running, jumping, and climbing. Kids need to be active on many levels, and they need to exercise their minds as well as their muscles. Research shows that children at the age of eight who have experienced varied and challenging play are considerably better prepared to benefit from ongoing formal education.

Imagination Playground’s Big Blue Blocks are a favorite for transforming kids playgrounds and large indoor play and outdoor play systems in schools, community centers, parks, museums, and child care facilities. Designed to spark creativity and encourage collaborative play, this soft play block set inspires children to work together to build, design, and invent.

The set features bricks, cylinders, chutes, channels, and connectors that encourage motion and creativity. These play sets promote inclusive play by offering endless possibilities for children of all abilities to engage in role-playing, construction, and imaginative adventures. Durable, yet lightweight, the Big Blue Blocks are easy to stack, move, and rearrange, fostering teamwork, physical activity and social interaction. From building structures to creating new games, children remain active, engaged, and immersed in hours of fun.