KaBOOM! and Imagination Playground

KaBOOM! and architect David Rockwell team up to bring Imagination Playground concept to children all over the country

What makes a great place to play? Truly great places to play engage the mind, activate the body, and excite the imagination. This summer, KaBOOM! is partnering with New York Architect David Rockwell to help create truly great playgrounds across America. By distributing Rockwell's innovative Imagination Playground systems to communities who need them, KaBOOM! is taking a giant leap toward our vision of a great place to play within walking distance of every child.

Imagination Playground is based around the concept of "free play," a simple but powerful idea that children should initiate and direct their own play, and should be able to manipulate their environment. With this in mind, Rockwell and his team designed the first Imagination Playground in Burling Slip in lower Manhattan with built-in sand and water elements, as well a system of lightweight and resilient "loose parts" — which kids can put together in limitless combinations — plus wheelbarrows, buckets and much more. By using these ingredients, children can turn their playground into a space constantly built and re-built by their imagination. Imagination Playground will also be staffed with play associates, who will encourage unstructured play. Rockwell Group will break ground on the Burling Slip Imagination Playground this summer.

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Since the Burling Slip location would be a very very long walk for any kid outside of Lower Manhattan, KaBOOM! agreed to bring Imagination Playgrounds to communities across the country. Together, KaBOOM! and Rockwell are creating smaller, portable versions of the Imagination Playground that communities can invest in to enhance the way their children play. KaBOOM! will kick off a three month test-run of the first of these systems, called "Imagination Playground in a Box" on July 8th in Brownsville, Brooklyn. This first prototype will consist of a two rolling closets, like small outdoor sheds, that will be filled with Rockwell's signature loose parts, as well as portable sand and water features. Play associates will introduce families to this new concept in play.

After the Brownsville installation, KaBOOM! will work to distribute different versions of the Imagination Playground to interested communities nationwide. By marrying the Rockwell Group's designs with a network of KaBOOM! communities, opportunities for children to engage in unstructured, self-directed "free play" will spring up across the nation.

If you’re interested in an Imagination Playground for your community, please email us your name, organization, city and state, phone number and e-mail.