BTW – the two examples you provided look like great implementation of water and concrete, but the intention of the space is different. I don’t think there is anything wrong with those spaces because I suspect people realize there is reason to take caution, whereas the space proposed in this project would encourage different behavior.

When I was a kid, playgrounds were made of huge wooden beams, metal poles, chains and tires, surrounded by yards of gravel, all potentially injury-inducing. I survived and so did all my friends. We also learned to look where we were going, that splinters wouldn’t kill us, that crushed rock wasn’t something to wrestle on, and most important, sliding down the slide in shorts during the height of summer was a very bad idea.

When I was a little bit older, I enjoyed running around the Leonhardt Lagoon in Dallas (http://tinyurl.com/ydtknty) and the Fort Worth Water Gardens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth_Water_Gardens), both of which comprised — guess what — concrete and water.

I know I’m turning into a crotchety old man, but frankly today’s plastic-bubble playgrounds make me sad. Raising kids in an entirely padded environment produces adults with no coping skills the same way raising them in a sterile, antibacterial setting produces adults with weak immune systems.

Let your kids get a few bruises and scrapes! Concrete only hurts when you aren’t careful.

Wes – Arielle’s comment brings up a good point to consider. Intentionally pouring uneven pavement in a park intended for young children seems a bit off.

They should be careful, it might attract Zombies.

This picture looks just like Heemraadsplein though, which is a stone-throw away from where i live, i look forward to seeing it.

I myself a involved in a 330 m2 green roof over my head, buffering almost 7000 liters of water if necessary.

As for the playground being made of tooth-chipping concrete, I say you gotta learn how to avoid injury somehow. Making everything out of Nerf is no way to instill survival skills.

I like the “frolicking rivulets”. I can’t remembre the last time I saw a rivulet frolic.

OH! Also the majority of it looks like it is made of concrete or at the very least something hard where their children can chip their teeth.

Doi!

Granted the most informative stuff is all in Dutch, so here’s another raise-your-hand poll: who here thinks the city of Rotterdam (which will build not only the watersquares but also a much larger stormwater infrastructure, of which these outdoor reservoirs are just part of it), will actually allow stormwater to go unfiltered and let children play in mucky water?

Judging from the comments, looks like most of you will be raising your hands. *sigh*

One should note however, that these plans do not seem to include swimming as much as jumping over puddles.

A nice small Filtration system for each site would be cool..Then cleaned out when the season changes..
Insted of 1 Location to clean water, a diverse Clean up system.
To many people think, MIXING all the good and BAD in 1 spot is better then CLEANING it up by AREA.

I can’t imagine that it would be very safe to let little children play in heavy metal and all the other types of effluent that was down storm drains.

Take a look at the next storm water drain, and the look at the goo collected at the bottom of the hole and ask yourself if you want to wade knee deep in there and then spend the rest of the morning wandering around in your disease suit?

Nice in theory, but unless they can some how clean the water before it gets to the kids playground this is a very bad idea