Unique and Creative Playgrounds

Danish design firm Monstrum, founded by Ole B. Nielsen and Christian Jensen, has dedicated itself to creating safe, stimulating, and beautifully designed playgrounds for children. They say, "playground design should be a reflection of the world surrounding us. We see the world as a place full of colour...Why only play on a monky frame and a sandbox, when you can play in a moon crater or a submarine or a giant spider or an enormous snail or a Trojans horse or a rocket or an ant or a princess castle. The fantasy is infinite."

Stuttgart City Library - Germany

Korean architect Eun Young Yi’s proposal was selected in 1999 from 235 competition entries as the plan for the new central library of the City of Stuttgart. The building of the 80-million Euro (about $108 mil. US) Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz began three years ago and the opening ceremonies took place last month. 

Yi has created a monolithic cube with two floors underground and nine above. Essentially all of the building, both inside and out is white. The main library floors circle an open-plan with the levels connected by open staircases. Books line the outer walls of each floor.

As a cool nod to the fact that the building is a storehouse of words, the word “library” is installed in four languages on the outside walls. On the North wall in German (the local language), West in English (lingua franca), South in Arabic (the language of ancient knowledge and of Stuttgart’s sister city, Cairo) and East in Korean (Yi’s native language).

Cool Card Board Homes

It’s comforting to know that in these times of tough mortgages and foreclosures, you can always afford one of these stylish cardboard homes by designer Javier Mariscal. At just £155.00, you can buy a few of them or built it yourself, rent them out, and become mayor of your own little town. Now there’s a thought.

China Comic & Animation Museum

This is set to begin construction next year in Huangzhou and looks amazing. If this is where China wants to go as global superpower, I am in. It looks like an Opera House for comics and the Dutch firm MVRDV, who won the pitch, designed the complex around the shape of the speech bubble. It will have three comics libraries, interactive light displays on the outer surfaces.

Cool Kids Room Interior Decorating

Multi-Function Space

Recently completed by Romanian designers Nuca Studio, Phill houses its restaurant on the first floor, while a playground, multi-function hall and café occupy the ground level below. Customers can leave their children playing downstairs and dine beside a four metre-high model elephant at this Bucharest restaurant.

The elephant stands over the central staircase and appears to be listening to music from a painted-on mp3 player and headphones.

Circular openings create colourfully framed views between rooms, allowing parents to keep an eye on their children.

D • I • Y - Ice Cream Maker

The UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker is one of those odd inventions you might see. The ball is a very curious combination of science, fun and cheap labor (your kids). By playing with the ball and circulating the ice/salt mixture, you freeze the milk in the interior container to make ice cream. If you have ever tried to use one of those hand-cranked ice cream makers, you know what a pain it is. Why not kick a ball around the backyard during the summer time and wind up with some ice cream. As strange as it is, it’s pretty cool.

 

D • I • Y - Sprout Children’s Furniture

Sprout children’s furniture is designed to be more than just furniture; it’s a medium of creativity, a medium of discovery. The play room or nursery becomes a stimulating environment where kids learn from and explore the world around them. Leonardo da Vinci said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. "It is this simplicity that Sprout strives to achieve in its modern kids furniture.

Sprout tool-less furniture is so easy to assemble that it goes together in minutes with no tools and no hardware. Just snap the parts together, and you’re done. Because the Sprout line is made of interchangeable modular components, individual parts can be swapped to change the style, or even the function of your furniture. Not only is Sprout kids furniture designed to be simple to use, but it is designed to be simple to manufacture.

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

Using an accelerometer, the spherical camera takes a photo at the apogee when there is the least amount of movement for surprisingly sharp images. It’s also made of soft collision material which just begs you to throw it at someone’s face or fling it with a water balloon launcher. The whole project is pretty interesting, and you can read more about it on Jonas Pfeil’s website

Boon Baby Bath Tub

Until recently, bathing a baby happened either in a big, clunky, plastic baby bathtub or precariously in the kitchen sink. Now parents can choose to bathe their infants in womb-like buckets or find more well-designed options like the Naked Baby Bathtub from Boon, makers of the brilliant Glo Nightlight with portable LED-illuminated balls and some pretty fabulous bath toys. The coolest thing about the Naked tub? It collapses and comes complete with a hook for easy storage. The tub is also just one piece, yet it accommodates newborns to 18-month-olds as it can be reclined to support newborns’ heads above water. Like all Boon products, Naked is free of BPA, phthalates and PVC.

Seven Child Airplane Teeter Totter

Save money on carnivals and amusement parks by investing in this mega outdoor attraction. The airplane-shaped teeter totter will entertain up to seven children at once. A child at both wingtips provides the up-and-down rocking motion. For a full flight, add three children sitting in the fuselage with one on each stabilizer at the tail. At its maximum capacity of 600 lbs., the teeter totter remains perfectly balanced. Made from durable powder-coated steel and UV-protected, high-density polyethylene, it should deflect heat during summer, making it prepared for takeoff at any moment. 

You can buy this on Amazon less then USD300.00

Happy Magic Watercube Waterpark in Beijing.

Next time we swing through Beijing on another round the world tour (oh how I miss company-sponsored travel sometimes) we’ll have to stop by the new Happy Magic Watercube Waterpark in Beijing. Housed in the National Aquatics Center from the 2008 Olympics, it feels more like a fantastical Broadway set for The Little Mermaid, count me in!

Archaeologists Discovered Prehistoric Finger Painting

Archaeologists have uncovered cave art providing evidence that hunter-gatherer children may have attended a form of prehistoric pre-school. Researchers have revealed that 13,000 years ago, prehistoric children created art in caves with the help of their parents. A conference on the Archaeology of Childhood at Cambridge University, starting today, will reveal the latest research into art made by children as young as three in one of the most famous prehistoric decorated caves in France.

Archaeologist Jess Cooney said: 'We don't know why people made them. We can make guesses like they were for initiation rituals, for training of some kind, or simply something to do on a rainy day'

Archaelogists found evidence of thousands of lines - a simple form of art or decoration known as finger flutings - made by people running their hands down the soft surfaces of the walls and roofs of the many galleries and passages that make up the complex.

Some of the drawings by children were found high up on walls, meaning they could have been helped up there under the watchful eye of an adult.

Read More : Daily Mail

Reuses Tires to Create a Rubber Tree Playground

Consumers in the United States discard 220,000,000 automobile tires per year. And that’s just one country. With stats like this it is easy to embrace AnneMarie van Splunter’s conceptual design for "Rubber Tree", a playground that utilizes tires headed for landfills by re-purposing them as primary building materials.

3 Stories Slide Family Home

While it is far for the first time a family has indulged its children with such a whimsical addition, this may be one of the most well-integrated (and longest) at-home slides yet created. The long slide down (designed, ironically, by Level Architects completes a circuit that starts with a staircase running along two walls of the home – one could endlessly move in a circle, effectively, running up and sliding down (definitely a good way to tire the kids out before bedtime~!!! Ahahah~!!!

While this core circulation wrapping the edges of the interior is certainly a great first step, there are many other child-oriented design strategies to be found throughout the house. Other kid-friendly spaces include include ball-fillable playrooms, art spaces and copious shelves for kids books and coloring supplies.