Design for Play

Housing Centre Trust and The Nursery Schools Association: London, 5s.) One of the many obvious advantages of replacing slum property by new housing estates is the provision of adequate garden space in which the children can playBut many people must have wondered whether, in this respect, the trend towards large blocks of residential flats has been a retrograde step. Certainly it requires little imagination to picture the problem of providing out-of-doors play facilities for a small child living on the upper floors of such a block of flats. What is much more difficult is to provide a practicable and satisfactory solution to this difficultyIt is the intention of this 56-page, fully-illustrated booklet, to suggest how this problem can best be tackled. A remarkable amount of detailed administrative, architectural and general infof" mation on this topic is compressed into so small a space, whilst the numerous photo* graphs and drawings very adequately illustrate what can be, and has been, done to provide such play facilities for children. Obviously, such a booklet could be ot value to Local Authorities, and others, who have to consider, and (we hope) provide such facilities. In short, this pamphlet would seem to be aimed essentially at planners' In these circumstances it is necessary to stress that the present reviewer is ^ clinician, and views this problem (and the booklet) from a clinical angle. whilst the clinician will approve the general purpose of this publication, and muctt of its content, he cannot help wondering at times how much the planners aim provide what they think should be provided, and how far they consider the rea desires and needs of the actual consumer?the child. It is perhaps no coincidence that the most "natural" photograph in the whole pamphlet is of a small boy fascinatedly studying a worm crawling across a paving stone. One cannot helP wondering whether the worm got there because of, or in spite of, the plannersTo the clinician, however, probably the strongest point of criticism will be for tn section which deals with the selection, training and functions of those adults are to supervise the play areas once these are provided. js But perhaps this detailed and specialised criticism is unfair. If this booklet,