Children have the right to play freely. Achieving this in Seoul comes with barriers: concerned parents, high-rise buildings and unequal play provision.
Sejong Kim lives in Gangnam, Seoul’s wealthiest district known for its competitive schools and helicopter parents. Her seven-year-old son joins his peers gathered outside in the apartment playground where they can play in the fountain area to escape the summer heatwave that has hit the capital city. Parents in their own clusters, reserve seats on the nearby benches under the shade. Watching her son run past the swings and dainty spring rockers, Sejong laments “it’s a lovely playground, but there’s not much to do.”
When the newly renovated apartment complex The H Xi Gaepo opened in 2021, Hyundai Engineering and Construction Group swept the board with major design awards, gaining attention for its landscape design and luxurious facilities. Residents have access to premium lifestyles including their own coffee shop, a sky lounge, swimming pool and even a small library. The centrepiece of the landscape is a children’s playground, painted in vibrant purple with water fountains embedded into futuristic sculptures and an underwhelming selection of equipment including animal shaped rockers and low suspended swings that hover close to the ground.
Sejong talks about her nostalgia for sandpits as she watches her son get soaked under the fountain. “Even if it means my kid will get a bit dirty, other places have much more variety but this [playground] is purely focused on aesthetics.”
In Seoho, also known as the country’s judicial district and home to more than a third of the country’s entire lawyer population, the Children’s Art Park has undergone renovation this year to enhance the visual appeal. Instead of a traditional activity tower, separate islands of bright yellow play areas featuring a mini slide, short monkey bars and a safely anchored basket swing sit on the impact absorbent surfacing. The refurbished playground is a prime example of the aesthetically pleasing, sterile, and risk-free playgrounds that have been taking over residential areas of Seoul.
Early childhood researchers and child psychologists have studied the benefits of risky play for many years. In some developed countries including the UK, Canada and Japan, advocates have been pushing educators and institutions to re-integrate challenge and freedom into children’s play instead of having parents bubble-wrap their children and take them to hyper-sterilised playgrounds; their dedicated cocoons for safe play. Risky play — activities that involve great heights, speed, dangerous (but secure) tools, or exploring alone — can benefit children’s core cognitive abilities, as well as their physical development, allowing them to build resilience, measure their own limits, prevent greater injuries and think independently.
South Korea, a country notorious for its fierce education system on its youth population, has seen a surge of stylish “concept playgrounds” in the wake of recent interest to improve playgrounds, but it still lags behind when it comes to attitudes to play and play provision in cities. Most children grow up in concrete, indoor environments; out of touch with nature or any sense of free play.
“Aesthetically pleasing playgrounds are a great way to promote a new residential development and set it at a higher price,” says Yeongum Kim, director of Wul Landscape Architects who specialises in accessible playgrounds. The most vertical city in the world, apartments comprise 59% of housing in Seoul. High-rise residential buildings started populating European cities from the early 20th century and evolved under the influence of functionalist ideas by the likes of Le Corbusier, the French architect who famously declared that “a house is a machine to live in”. Residential apartments started to spread in South Korea in the 1950s, and with it, the standardised playgrounds.
When the government stepped down from regulating housing prices in 1988 to supply new homes, apartment playgrounds became the shiny new toy for successful marketing. According to Kim, playgrounds were introduced as “Western exports”, a predetermined product rather than something to “think about deeply”. Throughout the 1990s to early 2000s, architects and planners mass manufactured the 4S structure (slide, swing, see-saw, sandpit), making little adjustments or consideration towards providing play through bespoke design. Such classic formats have long existed in other countries, often in the names of ‘cookie cutter’ or ‘plastic fantastics’. In the UK, K.F.C playgrounds often feature a small, individual kit like a swingset, barred by fences, and placed on rubber “carpets”.
Relics of such retro formats still remain in the apartment complex opposite the road from Sejong’s. The government-owned Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) developed the complex 50 years ago. Originally composed of eight buildings, five have been rebuilt, including Sejong’s current apartment, spearheaded by long years of residents’ petitions. In the remaining three original buildings, plastic slides and steel poles stand derelict with scant visitors apart from the maintenance manager who occasionally comes to rake the sandpit.
A city mostly comprised of high-rise buildings, the lack of play provision is palpable in lower income districts where the majority of residents live in detached or row houses. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, out of the 78,259 playgrounds nationwide, 41,183 are in residential neighbourhoods. By law, any apartment complexes with more than 150 units are required to have a playground on-site, which means there is a lopsided play provision between parents who raise children in a district dense with newly built high-rise apartments and those who can’t afford such housing that live in low-story flats or detached houses.
Such chasms have brought attention to the issue of who gets access to play in private residential playgrounds. Hoyeon Choi, an 11-year-old resident in the luxurious Xi Presidence complex in Gangnam, says he wouldn’t mind children from other neighbourhoods visiting. After all, “more people means more fun.”
The debate isn’t so simple for adult residents whose primary concern is their apartments’ brand value. An incident in 2021 involved a residents committee chair accusing five primary school children from another neighbourhood for trespassing the newly built residential playground. The man was reported to have made verbal attacks, shouting “thieves” while detaining them at the site until flustered parents came to resolve the situation. Last year in the Bangbae Grand Xi complex, a high-end development in Seocho with a recent sale price of £2.6mn, some residents appealed for a ban against children from the nearby nursery, managed by the local government and provided for all children in the area, from entering the Grand Xi playgrounds.
Article 2 in South Korea’s Housing Act categorises playgrounds and residents’ gyms as welfare facilities that are “for the life and welfare of residents”. In a “privately constructed housing” — housing not developed by LH — such communal facilities are private residential properties, allowing residents to have joint authority and responsibility over the management, maintenance and any repairment, including the right to impose regulations on who gets access to enter.
That is not to ignore a separate Enforcement Decree of the Multi-family Housing Management Act which in 2017, added a section outlining that residents may “permit occupants, etc. of neighbouring multi-family housing complexes to use communal facilities”. While in most circumstances, it is socially accepted for housing complexes to have their sites open to public access, more and more developments marketed as luxury housing are fencing off their communal grounds. With residential playgrounds composing 59.9% of the city’s play provision, and almost 50% of Seoul’s public schools banning access to their playgrounds/sports fields in after-school hours, little is left for children who don’t live in high rise, clustered buildings who want to play after school or in the weekends.
“Other neighbourhoods have at least one play zone per apartment [complex],” says Yeonhee Cho. Her family, including her two-year-old son, are residents in Myeonmok-dong, an under-developed area in Jungnang. One of the poorer districts in the city, according to Seoul Open Data Plaza, a total of 18,560 detached houses are packed into the 18 sq km territory of Myeonmok-dong a number far exceeding that of districts like Seocho (5,481) or Gangnam (6,968).
Only in the recent five years, policy makers have shifted their interest to relieve the unequal access to play. In January 2023, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced plans to level up the overall quality of playgrounds in the city until 2026. A major project included in the plan is renovating Seoul Children’s Grand Park which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. Planners will refurbish worn out facilities and build a multi-purpose cultural venue that will serve as a book cafe, indoor playground and gallery. A set of five large scale destination playgrounds are also scheduled to open in different areas in the city; the first of which, Everyone’s Playground, was designed by Kim at Wul Landscape Architects. The government hopes that destination playgrounds will provide the city’s children with better access to active outdoor play.
The UK is facing similar issues. According to a 2022 research by Association of Play Industries, a child in London has five times fewer public playgrounds available than a child in Scotland; the latter has 196 children per playground compared to 866 in London. Most government-backed funding schemes have been cut back over the years, making it a hostile environment to maintain them in good quality. Both in the UK and South Korea, more parents are turning to indoor playgrounds.
Kim explains that it is difficult to substitute outdoor play with kids cafes or indoor play zones. “The downsides would be air quality and just the pure freedom of being able to run around outside.” Nevertheless, a 2020 research on 80 children based in Norway found that, while children engaged in risky play significantly more in outdoor environments, “the amount of risky play indoors was higher than expected.” On the parents’ side, Kim says the restricted space makes it easier to spot children, allowing more time and space for parents to socialise with ease of mind. While play structures and equipment have vastly improved in safety, the fear of strangers approaching children with perverted motives or abduction is still a very real fear spread among parents worldwide.
In the UK, a 2020 British Children Play Survey conducted on 1919 parents with children aged 5 to 11, found that the average age of children allowed to play outside (10.74 years), was significantly higher compared to the age that the parents were allowed in their childhoods (8.91 years). 108 respondents did not specify any age; “that they would not allow their child out alone.” The study also identified parents agreeing on the benefits of including risk and challenge, but having concerns for road safety and “stranger danger”.
“It’s more about them going missing or strangers approaching rather than worrying about them getting physically injured,” says Stephen and Rebecca Smith, parents of a seven-year-old girl and five-year-old boy. Upon avid recommendations from friends, they have been using AirTag wristbands to track their children. Since its launch in 2021, consumers have found various ways to utilise Apple’s AirTag device, some more controversial than others, like last year’s lawsuit filed against Apple over its “woefully inadequate” safeguards to prevent it from being abused by stalkers. Parents have been relieving their anxieties by putting the devices on children, their bikes, backpacks or lanyards, and to track them when they’re out alone.
For the Smiths, the gadget is just an extra safety measure. “Of course we keep our eyes on them as well,” says Rebecca. “But sometimes in playgrounds, kids go and play in a group and you would look at the back of a boy thinking it’s your son and then he’s not.” When asked what age would be appropriate for the kids to go play outside alone, she demurs to answer. Following their children’s trail as they move around Holland Park’s adventure playground, a 22-acre area re-designed by Erect Architecture in 2019, Stephen points out the benefits of being risk inclusive; enabling the children to test their limits and “judge what’s safe and what’s not.”
Parents from certain areas of the world have been reported to be more risk-averse than those from other cultural backgrounds that are more open to free play, notably Norway or the Netherlands. An aspect often overlooked by risk-averse parents is that risk and hazard are two different things. According to the Canadian public health association, a hazard is a danger “beyond the child’s capacity to recognize” while risk is a challenge or uncertainty that the child “can recognize and learn to manage by choosing to encounter”. In 2015, a tragic incident in Mile End Park, East London, was caused by a rotting playground swing that collapsed onto five-year-old Alexia Walenkaki — a hazard that neither the child or parent could prevent. Investigations found that the swing was manufactured in poplar wood, a lightweight, flexible material with half the hardness of oak wood. In contrast, “getting lost” in a bushy maze built within the playground territory, or climbing up ten metres inside a play tower built according to safety standards such as the European Play Safety Standard (EN 1176), are challenges that users can assess and encourage to develop risk-competence.
For the wooden frame in Holland Park adventure playground, a product that Stephen’s then four-year-old son was reluctant to climb on in his first visit, design and manufacturing company Duncan and Grove used robinia, a type of durable, splinter-free wood. In conjunction with London based practice, Erect Architecture, they have completed multiple award-winning projects including Holland Park Playground, Jellicoe Water Gardens in Hemel Hempstead and Alexandra Road Park in Camden. For the latter, Erect Architecture revived the hitherto deserted playscapes that were originally designed in 1979.
Listed in National Geographic’s 12 best playgrounds in the world, Princess Diana Memorial Playground at Hyde Park welcomes over 1,000,000 annual visitors. Opened in 2000 as a tribute to Princess Daiana and her admiration towards children worldwide, Land Use Consultants designed a Peter Pan themed playscape featuring a variety of natural materials and equipment for sensorial stimulation such as sound, sand, water and timber. The £1.7mn funding, equivalent to £3mn today, allowed capacity for play areas that can accommodate a wide range of children from toddlers to 12-year-olds. Facilities supporting different stages of play; solitary play using sensorial experimentation (0–3 years), associate play involving group activities (3–6 years), physical play (6–8 years) and independent, competitive play (8 years and upward), is a luxury that is not always provided in the limited fundings for small neighbourhood playgrounds.
Yujin Jung, a primary school teacher from Seoul, spent her family’s summer holiday in London touring its parks and playgrounds, skipping the renowned museums. Watching her husband push her eight-year-old daughter on the swings at the Diana Memorial playground, she laments on the lack of diversity of materials in playgrounds back home. Steel and plastic slides can get too cold to touch in lower temperatures and lack sensorial stimulation compared to grass or wood. “When I was young, I used to run outside, play in the imagined kitchen with dirt and flowers, but I don’t think children these days would know how to play like that outside,” she says.
A 2022 research to mark National Play Day found only 27% of children play regularly outside compared to 71% of their grandparents’ generation. A country with some of the unhappiest adolescents in the world, South Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research conducted a two year research which found that children aged 3 to 9 spent an average daily outdoor playtime of 34 minutes. “They probably know how to play in their plastic play kitchens,” remarks Yujin jokingly. However, as much as she feels remorse for the lack of free outdoor play, Yujin is one of the many parents unwilling to let their kids out unsupervised until they reach at least 12 years old. “Even when I follow her in the playground, I often find myself telling her to be careful.”
“Parents can have a negative effect on their child’s playability,” says Gabriel Green, senior playworker and deputy fund manager at Triangle Adventure Playground. Located in Oval, Triangle APG is London’s oldest adventure playground to operate in its original site since 1957 and some families have been visiting the facility across multiple generations. The playground is funded through independent committees and donations. The tyre swing looks unsteady and the metal slide is narrow and steep, but a sense of openness and support for unregulated, natural play soon becomes palpable. Children interact across a much broader age range compared to the average playground. Some ride on wonky wagons, one group huddles around the picnic table to play cards, while another group ventures into the shrubs with a playworker. .
For Green, it’s important for the children to be independent and feel that it’s their space. “So if you’ve got mum there or dad there, then they change the dynamic,” he says. “It negates the idea of young people feeling a sense of ownership of the playground.”
The idea of adventure playgrounds, or junk playgrounds, was promoted by the Danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Sorensen (1893–1979) who built the first of its kind in Emdrup, Copenhagen in 1943. Instead of being an architect, Sorensen considered himself as more of a “facilitator”, someone who lets children create their own play according to their desires. Much of his inspiration came from observing children playing with rubble in bombed sites following World War II, and the foundational theories of childhood; the importance of self-directed activity, children’s physical and mental health, creative thinking, proposed by Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), the German pedagogue who pioneered early childhood education. When English landscape architect Lady Allen of Hurtwood visited Emdrup’s adventure playground in 1946, she started building similar sites in her home country.
In England, 17th century ideologies of Puritanism that triggered a change in how children were treated in society. Puritans encouraged parents to bear greater responsibilities and educate children to learn the Bible and follow their strict religious rules. The social construction of childhood and their treatment in society continued to develop throughout the next centuries. Another turning point was led by Jean Jacques Rousseau when he promoted the innate innocence of children in his book Emile, or Education, published in 1762.
Many parents undermine their children’s ability to self-assess risk and danger, but this is a common misconception according to Green. Some parents become worried when they find children climbing high up on a tree, but “if they’ve climbed that high, they can climb back down,” he says. Children’s safety is a valid concern for any responsible parent, but a research published by Bernard van Leer Foundation, the international grant making organisation supporting early childhood development, found that life-changing playground accidents are seldom. Fatal incidents like the 2015 Mile End Park tragedy are almost unheard of, and injury rates for ball sports like rugby, hockey, football or netball are “orders of magnitude higher” than that in playgrounds.
Unfortunately, manufacturers and maintenance companies in litigious societies like the United States are more exposed to liability claims against such rare accidents, putting them under higher pressure. Unlike many countries in Europe where medical treatment is accessible and affordable, playground injuries can quickly become a financial burden for families in the United States unless they take legal action and receive compensation. For makers and designers in South Korea where healthcare is affordable, the vague legal definitions of a playground between different governmental bodies deter any efforts to make new, creative playscapes in fear of falling into liability claims. Instead, makers resort to copy and pasting pre-validated, standardised equipment like slides and castle-style towers.
The range of play happening at Triangle APG is almost infinite, many of which are seasonal; sliding on the water pool in the summer, collecting the autumn rain to pour into contraptions that can move, building shelters, hammer beads, football, and endless options for imaginative role play. The role of playworkers is to guide the children when they seek extra help, not to regulate their actions. Green compares it to plate spinning. “This one needs a nudge, that one needs putting on the spin. [But] If it’s spinning fine, leave it,” he says. Thanks to its long history, they have also built an ecosystem to nurture new playworkers. Some regular visiting children who have grown up with the playworkers can take on their graduate scheme, volunteer to play work at Triangle APG and if successful, have a full time job as a playworker.
The role of a playworker, and the concept of playworker is still novel in South Korea. According to Wul Landscape’s Kim, Koreans adopted the title “playworker” from Western countries but its meaning has diverged — pointing to older people that intervene and teach children traditional games from the 1950s and 60s.
Adventure playgrounds are niche, private areas that are locked when not in use. Tim Gill, former director of Play England, points out in his book Urban Playground: How child friendly planning and design can save cities. To make public realms more accessible for children and to make a neighbourhood child-friendly, a wider effort is required to transform entire systems. Although difficult, examples from various countries prove it’s not impossible.
Once voted the worst city to raise a child in, Rotterdam is now a leading child-friendly city in the world. From 2006 to 2010, the city poured £4.4mn per year and another £1.6mn per year from 2014 to 2018, to fund initiatives such as Dream Streets and Promising Neighbourhoods, working with local children and adults to co-design their streets with architects and opening up schoolyards to the public. The 12-year-long Child Friendly Rotterdam plan has proven to be one of the most successful cases of age-friendly urban regeneration.
In Vauban, a small neighbourhood in Freiburg, Germany, parking lots are located in the outskirts of the town, making room for play affordances in the town centre where children can play basketball, or run around safely outside. Another child friendly city is Ghent, the northwestern port city of Belgium where services like pram rentals, temporary road closures for play, and voluntary childcare among parents have labelled it as the most “child and youth friendly city in Flanders”. Reducing traffic is one of the most effective ways to improve both play quality and community culture in a neighbourhood. A 2011 study on three streets in Bristol found that the number of friends and acquaintances reported by residents was significantly lower on streets with higher volumes of motor traffic.
With Freiburg’s population reaching only a tenth of Seoul and Ghent, almost a fifth, the same policies are not guaranteed to work in a dense city like Seoul with unaffordable housing prices and stark gentrification. But even London, a crowded city with an apocalyptic housing market, is spearheading its own improvements to the city structure. The 2018 Walking Action Plan backed by Public Health England (now replaced by the UK Health Security Agency), aims to increase the proportion of pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users to comprise 80% of total journeys by 2041.
Kim is currently devising a new Play Environment Plan with government officials. There is almost too much room for improvement; promoting risky play to regular parents, creating more outdoor and nature focused play areas, re-evaluating equipment safety regulations and clarifying liability clauses for injuries. “Local governments have been pumping out aimless, cookie-cutter playgrounds, but we need a proper long-term plan — raise the bar for our entire perception of play.”
The government’s playground levelling up plan is only a stepping stone towards an age-friendly environment for Seoul. By 2027, the city will have 48 new indoor playgrounds placed in pocket parks, a space for natural play protected from extreme weather conditions. Hopes are high for local communities. If executed successfully, vibrant neighbourhoods will bring not just children, but everyone closer.
