| Learning the ropes – why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds |
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 Triitopia climbing tower in Ludwig Lesser Park in Berlin’s Frohnau district. Photograph: Philip Oltermann/The Guardian |
| October 27, 2021 (info@editorial.theguardian.com) If scaling the Triitopia looks risky, that is the point: built in 2018, the climbing tower in Berlin-Frohnau’s Ludwig Lesser Park is emblematic of a trend that has accelerated in Germany over the past five years.A growing number of educators, manufacturers and town planners argue that playgrounds must stop striving for absolute safety and instead create challenging microcosms that teach children to navigate difficult situations, even if the consequence is the odd broken bone.One influential 2004 study found that children who had improved their motor skills in playgrounds at an early age were less likely to have accidents as they got older. With young people spending an increasing amount of time at home, the umbrella association of statutory accident insurers in Germany last year called for more playgrounds that teach children to develop “risk competence”. |
