The Brutalist Playground 2016 Tour

'The Brutalist Playground' installation by Turner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble and artist Simon Terrill, tours across the UK over spring and summer 2016. The installation, commissioned by the RIBA in 2015, has been to Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen (27 April to 29 May) and will next be shown at S1 Artspace, Sheffield, from 18 June to 10 September. 

'The Brutalist Playground' explores the abstract concrete playgrounds that were designed as part of post-war housing estates in the mid-twentieth century. The part sculpture, part architectural installation that invites people of all ages to come and play, evolves with newly commissioned elements for each venue.  The tour coincides with the Look Again Festival, Aberdeen (28 April to 2 May) and the Yorkshire Festival (16 June to 3 July).

Post-war playgrounds were often made from concrete, cast into sculptural forms, which presented a distinct move away from previous playground design. They were envisaged as a key aspect of the estate layout and design and as such reflect prevailing and social theories and concerns at that time. The original installation drew from a number of London estates: Churchill Gardens, Pimlico; the Brunel Estate, Paddington and the Brownfield Estate, Poplar. For the 2016 tour, a new element will be added to the originally commissioned works at each venue, drawn from Seamount Court in Aberdeen and the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield respectively.

Assemble and Simon Terrill used photographs and archival material in the RIBA’s Collections, to recreate play structures cladded in reconstituted foam, creating an interactive playground where the viewer becomes participant and in this way completes the work while offering a renewed understanding and critique of the architects' original designs and intentions. Archive images of the original playgrounds are projected on the walls.