Wonderground: An exploration of alternative playgrounds

Abstract

Conventional playgrounds offer little variation and surprise for something considered to have great social and artistic potential in the city. Are these spaces becoming more about convenience than meaningful experience, and more about physical activity than stimulating the imagination? This thesis takes a look at Oslo’s biggest city development project in history, Hovinbyen, as a case study; and further, how to activate one of the area’s most distinctive landmarks, The Hovin Stream.

Society have the potential to play a significant role in encouraging and supporting children’s sense of wonder; the name Wonderground was invented to suggest a way of doing this through the design of an alternative play space. The thesis challenges our collective understanding of what a playground is, and proposes an approach of using storytelling to connect a public play space to a fictional world.