Schoolyard Design

Schoolyard Design

Spielhang Risskov-Schule

Risskov School was extended with a new building for the pupils from 0th to 2nd grade. All rooms in this building have access to a large outdoor playground slope connecting the existing school and the new extension to the adjacent football field. The hill, which ...

Schoolyard Design

A cloverleaf-shaped climbing structure for the Munich Werksviertel neighbourhood

An urban quarter is being built in Munich's Berg am Laim district. The Werksviertel, as the approximately 39-hectare area at Munich’s Ostbahnhof (East Station) is called, is supposed to combine modern life, housing and working. It blends the old ...

Schoolyard Design

Inklusion und Natur

For over 40 years, the HBZ (Heilpädagogisches Zentrum) curative education centre for children and young people with special needs in Rosenheim has been a centre of excellence for education and special needs education. The common goal is to help the child develop into a self-reliant and socially competent personality.

Schoolyard Design

There are two things children should get through parents and school: Roots and Wings

Rosa Luxemburg School is a so-called "green" school in the centre of Potsdam, which offers a charming learning environment for everyone. The green grasses were also taken up as a central design motif in the outdoor facilities in the form of three-dimensional play elements on which...

Schoolyard Design

School playground and exercise

In a cooperative process with the school management, the municipality and the school community, the schedule of accommodation and a space allocation plan for the schools were developed in working groups and workshops.

Schoolyard Design

Primary School No. 30 "Am Hechtpark" in Dresden - experiencing nature in the city

At the end of the 1950s, the construction of the new school building was started to replace the historic building which had been destroyed in the war. In 1965 the school began operating. Since then, almost nothing has happened on ...

Schoolyard Design

Modernisation of the schoolyard of the Johann Friedrich Mayer School

During the past few years, the Johann Friedrich Mayer School in Kupferzell has been refurbished and expanded. In addition to new school buildings, the outdoor facilities were also enlarged and the playgrounds and sports facilities were redesigned.

Schoolyard Design

From “Schwarzer Platz” (Black Square) to “Bunter Hof” (Colourful Courtyard)

Construction of a new three-form entry primary school in the Frankfurt district of Berkersheim.

Schoolyard Design

Elbschule - Educational Centre for Hearing and Communication in Hamburg

A special schoolyard design for hearing-impaired and multiply-impaired children.

Schoolyard Design

The "Haus am Bach" (House by the Brook): ISGY – Gymnasium Ismaning (Ismaning Grammar School)

Today, when students romp across the spacious playground surrounded by dense greenery, only the basic structure is reminiscent of the area formerly used as a car park.

Schoolyard Design

The Edlach primary school in Dornbirn – play and exercise in the fresh air

A wooden structure stands in the middle of a residential area just a few minutes on foot from the city centre of Dornbirn in Austria. In the grassy courtyard of the structure, some children are ...

Schoolyard Design

School at the Park with an autonomously usable exercise programme

The school’s name (School at the Park) is no coincidence: a beautiful old tree population of plane trees, lime trees and maples provides this area with a special flair. It is situated....

Schoolyard Design

School grounds in the sense of "Play for all"

Changing lifestyles and working environments make it that children spend increasingly more time at school. Accordingly, the school building and the relevant open space are not only learning but also important living spaces...

Schoolyard Design

SCHOOL GROUNDS - more physical activity at schools and daycare centres

Presentation at the Sportinfra 2020 expert forum "Modern sports infrastructure in urban areas".

Schoolyard Design

The Laakirchen Playground Concept

Participatory project for the all-day school and the public play and open spaces in the Austrian paper city.

Schoolyard Design

High up in the sky

The Katharinen school in Hamburg's HafenCity has a school playground on its roof

Schoolyard Design

Steyrdorf school – a school garden created with labour, love and learning

Among the many school gardens that we have designed in the 30 years that we have been active this garden stands out in many aspects. In first place is the...

Schoolyard Design

Wilhelm-von-Humboldt-Schule: a new look for two schoolyards

Schoolyard Design

Play for the very young - near-natural open space at Trachenberger Platz II

When children play, they are usually totally enthralled and intuitively learn exactly what they need for their healthy development. They gain essential knowledge and skills while ...

Schoolyard Design

Nature, play and ecology in the schoolyard

Schoolyard Design

More than fresh air and exercise - new playground equipment for the Travemünde City School

"We look for treasures, find them and preserve them". This guiding principle is the main focus of the educational concept of the Travemünde City School in Lübeck, which is ...

Schoolyard Design

The “Spielraumgesetz” (Play Space Act) as a basis for innovative school playgrounds

Plenty of space for children and young people all around the Rheindorf Primary School in Lustenau.

Schoolyard Design

Montessori School in Freising: "We support your children”

Mens sana in corpore sano - healthy body, healthy mind.

Schoolyard Design

The “Wellenspiel” – designing a play slope in the schoolyard of the Regenbogenschule in Wolfsburg

Schoolyard Design

Burgschule Nieder-Olm: redesigned schoolyard with play castle and other great playground equipment

How did the Burgschule (Castle School) get its name, although there is no castle anywhere in sight? This question was raised by landscape architect Verena Dörhöfer when she was awarded the planning contract for the redesign of the...

Schoolyard Design

Planning the world of school – together is better: an inspiring example from Neustadt am Rübenberge

The integrated combined school in the town of Neustadt am Rübenberge in Lower Saxony is located in a rural area and has a total of 1500 pupils. In it are amalgamated the three different branches of schooling available in Germany and pupils can also graduate from it with a ...

Schoolyard Design

Schoolyard Re-design: Lessons Learned from the IPLAY Project

The World Health Organization observed more than a three-fold increase in global obesity rates since 1975 and major public health organizations have begun to recognize childhood obesity “as one of the most serious...

Schoolyard Design

New educational campus in Freiham provides varied exercise offerings at the highest possible design level

Physically active school breaks in Munich.

Schoolyard Design

Play and sport in the open air facilities of Mahlsdorf primary school

Visitors can easily forget that they are actually in Berlin when they approach the extensive school grounds in the north of Mahlsdorf, surrounded as they are by this bucolic-seeming green district of the city with its small houses. In fact, Mahlsdorf is just a ...

Schoolyard Design

73 exercise-friendly playgrounds were redesigned in Lower Austria

73 school playgrounds were redesigned in the past four years in the context of the Lower Austrian promotional campaign called "Schoolyards and playgrounds in motion". The main objective of this initiative was...

Schoolyard Design

School and break rooms -school and break dreams Participatory discussions, decisions, design and construction

The Wauwil School in the canton of Lucerne has built a new schoolyard and added an extension to one of its school buildings. All students were closely involved in this transformation process from the planning stage to implementation.

Schoolyard Design

Danish study on the exercise behaviour of children - Schoolyard refurbishment with surprising consequences

Trampolines, obstacle course, skate park: In the context of a study the playgrounds of a Danish school were made more attractive. The gratifying result: not only has physical activity changed to the better but also social behaviour.

Schoolyard Design

Going with the flow

Upgrading of the outdoor areas of the Phoenix-Gymnasium school in Dortmund

Schoolyard Design

Exercise in public spaces – non-organised sport as a feature of sport development policies

How many football pitches does a locality need? Do local authorities provide opportunities to motivate residents to take up sport and exercise? Not only the needs of schools and clubs should be taken into account in sport development policies; those of people indulging in sport and exercise as casual activities also need to be considered. Discussed in the following is the relevance of recreational sport and how this needs to be catered for in sport-related policies.

Schoolyard Design

In the digital age exercising playfully is indispensable!

As the first school in Bavaria the primary and secondary school of Thalmässing which is situated in the Roth district of Central Franconia in Germany has been awarded the Jakob Muth Prize in 2016, which is based on an initiative of the German government in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Foundation and the German UNESCO Commission. ...

Schoolyard Design

Moving break in Singapore

Celebrate Your Roots – Discover Your Wings is the motto of the German European School in Singapore (GESS). ...

Schoolyard Design

The barrier-free outdoor facilities of Steinwald School Everything out of the ordinary

The out-dated and not barrier-free outdoor facilities of Steinwald School in Berlin for children with special needs have been completely reformed and adapted to the specific needs of its students.

Schoolyard Design

Physical control in the schoolyard

Report about the construction of a Calisthenics centre at the Aloisiuskolleg: a climbing, playing and training facility. These days, simple control of one's body is no longer self-evident among children and youngsters. ...

Schoolyard Design

The "School Fitness" initiative as a contribution to promoting health and physical activity at schools

Health promotion at school- Health prevention and promotion play an increasingly important role also in the context of education. ...

Schoolyard Design

Orange and green in harmony - Fall protection and sports flooring at the Realschule Unterschleißheim

The building diary on the Therese-Giehse-Realschule website praises the school’s new building replacing the old as “more beautiful, colourful and modern” than the existing building.

Schoolyard Design

"Your schoolyard" - a German federal initiative which aims at redesigning schoolyards. Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-School in the German city of Wiesbaden inaugurates its schoolyard of the future.

Where until now there was only a grey asphalt surface, there is now a diverse mosaic of activity areas, such as a jackstraw made of tree trunks, a tree house and a climbing scaffold all of which invite children to frolicking around and balancing. In addition, the roundabout with several benches and tables offers enough space for get-togethers and games. In addition, various shrubs and trees can be found in between.

Schoolyard Design

Redesigning the schoolyard into a new classroom building

The schoolyard of primary school "Am Reesenbüttel" in the City of Ahrensburg will be redesigned.

Schoolyard Design

Research focus on specific schoolyard characteristics and on the physical activity of children by applying mapping methods

At a worldwide level, schools as such possibly offer the best prerequisites to support the physical activity (abbreviation in German kA) of children (Institute of Medicine, 2013) as on the one hand and according to Black et al, 2015, children spend the majority of their growth period at school. At the same time, it is at schools where a high number of children from different social backgrounds can be reached (Andersen et al., 2015).

Schoolyard Design

Schoolyards as spaces for education - Seven criteria of implementation

"These days the German word Hof (yard in English) - in a construction-related context - does not have a good sound. We associate it with the idea of desolate wasteland. However, this has not always been the case. There were times when the house yard was the centre...

Schoolyard Design

Disabled-accessible playground redesign in Hoyerswerda

Hoyerswerda special school for the disabled (Bautzen, Saxony)

Schoolyard Design

Schoolyards as spaces for movement A plea for the intelligent threefold use of schoolyards in the context of increasing competition for land

Using the prospering megacity of Cologne as an example.

Schoolyard Design

Important aspects regarding the design of playgrounds on school yards

This article presents empirically-based aspects which should be considered when designing playgrounds with permanently installed devices. They are...

Schoolyard Design

Our schools need exercise

Prof. Dr Ingo Froböse was interviewed by the trade magazine Playground@Landscape.
Ingo Froböse is a university professor...

Schoolyard Design

Designing exercise-friendly schoolyards

Physical activity is very important for the overall development of children and adolescents. The relevance of movement is increasingly discussed in the context of learning and success in school...

Schoolyard Design

Five yards for Austria's Bundesgymnasium* Zehnergasse *(Bundesgymnasium = public grammar school)

Schoolyards serve as sports and leisure centre to the benefit of the entire district. The extension of Bundesgymnasium Zehnergasse in Wiener Neustadt, a project carried through by GABU Heindl Architecture - A school in motion

Schoolyard Design

When break-time means exercise

The design of school playgrounds has undergone a revolution in recent years.
As a result of German standard DIN 18.031 on hygiene in school construction that was in force to 1981, school playgrounds throughout Germany became monotonous grey concreted areas embellished with a few plant beds...

Schoolyard Design

Stylised Nature

Geneva, Switzerland, Chandieu district. In this district this year the well-known firm of architects, Atelier Bonnet is constructing a large complex with nursery school, school, sports hall and swimming pool. The modern, high-end architecture is implanted into the green belt of public parks...

Schoolyard Design

New approaches in the design and use of exercise-friendly schoolyards

BSW is the leading manufacturer of sports and play surfaces for indoor and outdoor use. In cooperation with well-known civil engineering and landscape architects, the company has equipped imaginative and innovative facilities with its floorings. Based on this, in an interview...

Schoolyard Design

Sport in the schoolyard – exercise options for children and young people

They may have once been grey and dismal, but today's school playgrounds are both colourful and activity-friendly. In addition to being able to enjoy the fresh air here, school pupils will now find age-appropriate sport and exercise opportunities in their playground. And all this activity is not just there to provide diversion and recreation during the school day: sport and exercise are also important factors when it comes to ensuring children and young people stay healthy. It is thus essential to make sure that the outdoor facilities of every school provide a varied repertoire of exercise options.

Schoolyard Design

Promoting participation and involving stakeholders

Collaboration with the Joan-Miró school. When planning playgrounds and schoolyards in particular, it is always advisable to extensively consult with the later 'users' ‒ the children themselves. Adults very quickly lose sight of what is really necessary for fun

Schoolyard Design

A special playground: The Erich Kästner-Schule in Oelde

The LWL School for children with learning difficulties in Oelde, with its funding priority of physical and motor development, is the central learning and development hub for circa 180 children and young adults with a physical disability or multiple disabilities. The new school building, part of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) (landscape federation for Westphalia-Lippe) received special recognition at the German playground awards because the school grounds are not accessible to the public.

Schoolyard Design

Outstanding primary school with sports surfaces: colourful features in "pea green"

A newly completed primary school in Munich's new "Arnulfpark" district applies a modern educational concept that is reflected in the layout of the building. The four study groups range across all ages, each one being identified by its own...