“You can discover more about a person from an hour of play than a year of conversation”
I recently had the pleasure of working with a local couple to design and construct a play structure for their quickly growing young son. He was advancing out of toddlerhood with a energy and aptitude for running and climbing that all children seem to possess, and always seems to catch their parents by surprise.
We worked our way through a number of options and design ideas, trying to find something which was versatile and safe that he could also grow into as his abilities developed.
However, in addition to those challenges, the compelling part of this project for me was to create a piece that would also match the contemporary aesthetic of the parents. If we could make it a place where the whole family's needs are met, it would bring them even closer together.
Parents and children grow up together, and our individual worlds affect each other in ways most of us don't notice or understand. In the end, I think the real purpose of this project was to help us understand each other better, through the most basic form of communication we have; play.