PL AY NATUREINSPIRED
Nature Is Everywhere PL AY NATUREINSPIRED
No matter where you live — in the woods, on a mountain, near a field, along a cul-de-sac or in an urban area — if you are outdoors, you are surrounded by nature.
Outdoor play offers kids plenty of health benefits, because it:
Increases
• Physical activity 1,2
• Vitamin D levels3
Decreases
• Obesity4
• Risk of myopia (nearsightedness) 5,6,7
Promotes
• Unstructured play, key to executive function and creativity8
• Curiosity, independence and ability to focus9
But getting them outdoors can be hard: Each day, kids spend 4-7 minutes in unstructured outdoor play vs. 7+ hours in front of a screen9
Our play products are specifically designed to increase the amount of time kids spend outdoors.
Landscape Structures® playstructures and Aquatix® water play events blend the beauty and wonder of nature with the safety, age-appropriateness and durability found in manufactured equipment. This careful balance creates the optimal play environment. Adding SkyWays® shade to reduce heat and UV exposure allows kids to play even longer.
Commitment to timeless design
Our use of mixed materials ensures that every playstructure and spray park event remains dependably resilient, versatile and low-maintenance. In other words, they stand the test of time, providing the ultimate in play from day to day, year after year, for generations to come.
Shoreview Commons
Destination Playground
Shoreview, Minnesota
PL AY DESIGN MATTERS
MATTERS MORE
Nature Is Everywhere
A unique and cool-looking design can get kids to the playground the first time. But it’s play value that keeps them coming back.
Landscape Structures is committed to making good first and lasting impressions. Every playstructure is purposely designed with play value in mind, so kids naturally play longer and return more often.
Inclusivity ups the play value even more
All kids want to play, but not every environment makes that possible. Designers at Landscape Structures are continually looking for new opportunities to welcome more kids onto the playstructure, so they can experience play in ways that best fit their abilities.
Bay City State Park
Bay City, Michigan
We’re Inspired By Nature
COLOR
The fledgling green of Sprout, liquid gold of Honey and bright warmth of Paprika. All Landscape Structures’ colors are inspired by nature, many with the names to match.
Strategic use of color can inform specific landscapes, seascapes, even airscapes. You may choose to blend in, like a desert-themed playstructure in a desert community; or stand out, like an underwater-themed playstructure in a prairie town.
Only Landscape Structures combines expert color leadership with a rich selection of proprietary colors.
Consider how the color palette for Smart Play® Summit™ takes you from the snow-tipped mountain tops, down rocky ledges, to the tree-lined meadow at the base.
Smart Play® Summit™
Nature Is Everywhere
LAND
FORMA™ offers a contemporary way to express nature today. With abstract elements reaching out like branches of a tree, the Forma collection combines asymmetrical shapes, unique angles and a mix of materials to create endless play opportunities.
Build your one-of-a-kind naturescape by choosing your favorite components, from climbers, slides and swing frames to the Fox Den® Hangouts and Focal® Sensory Wall.
Then select the just-right color palette that transforms your structure into any environment you want, like a Southwestern scene, a wooded splendor or a metropolitan riverfront.
Wooded Park Forma™ Playground Design
Painted Sky Park Apache Junction, Arizona
Nature Is Everywhere
LAND
Naturally urban Any city dweller with outdoor plants will tell you that bees inhabit the city, too; we just may not always notice them. But kids will notice a giant honeycomb climber in the middle of downtown.
It provides an innovative opportunity to explore the wonders of nature in a way that engages the imagination along with physical activity.
Or you might choose to introduce an unexpected natural setting, like planting a jungle-themed playground or African Safari themed playstructure within a city park—the contrast is everything!
Medallion DigiFuse® Sign
16th Street Beehive Denver, Colorado
Nature Is Everywhere
LAND
Topography What a difference a simple slope can make. Strategically positioned near slides and nets, it can provide additional access points while also acting as its own event for rolling down and climbing or crawling back up.
Rarely does the world around us appear flat and level. Use topography to add aesthetic and dimensional interest on the playground. For example, sloped safety surfacing can offer a colorful take on nature as well as provide important cues for kids with visual disabilities.
Whether covered in turf or safety surfacing, topography is a natural way to introduce inclusivity, allowing kids with upper-body strength to explore multiple levels of play.
Thanksgiving Point Farm Country Lehi, Utah
Seneca Park, Eli M. Schulman Playground Chicago, Illinois
Nature Is Everywhere
LAND
Canyon Collection® These Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) rock climbers fit into a variety of familiar landscapes, from desert outcrops to coastal shorelines. But they can bring a nature-inspired challenge to any setting.
Molded from actual rock formations, these realistic climbers offer kids a true-to-life rock-climbing experience at age-appropriate heights, with built-in hand- and toe-holds to encourage beginner and experienced climbers alike.
Choose from several preconfigured formations for some serious climbing adventure. Kids will love finding all the carefully sculpted fossils, stalactites and other cave dwellers.
Desert Arroyo Park Mesa, Arizona
Nature Is Everywhere
LAND
More realism with GFRC Using molds made from actual tree bark is just one way we bring realism to our GFRC creations. Our expert artisans can sculpt lifelike critters (from insects to whales), turn oversized mushrooms and maple leaves into whimsical steppers, and create cattail post toppers for that finishing touch.
Inform playful young minds with a playground based upon the natural history of your community or a nearby natural landmark.
Or simply add any of our many GFRC options, like mushroom and log steppers, acorn seats, tree climbers, and more.
Fort Washington New York, New York
Nature Is Everywhere
Hope Playground at Whiteside Park Tulsa, Oklahoma
Margaret T. Hance Park Phoenix, Arizona
Naranja Park Oro Valley, Arizona
Nature Is Everywhere
WATER
Nature-inspired play can be as simple as selecting a Smart Play® structure. The Smart Play collection includes five nature-inspired playstructures, including the fluidly playful BeachComber®.
You also can create a marine-themed playground simply by adding a Spring Rider made with DigiFuse® and creatively colorful surfacing. Or make it as unique as your quest for kids to learn about the local fishing industry in a playful way.
Seaside Park Smart Play® BeachComber®
Greenbriar Park Washington, DC
Nature Is Everywhere
WATER
GFRC on the splash pad You can let any nature-inspired theme take root on the splash pad with a strategic combination of GFRC creations and classic spray features.
For example, create a watery woodland where a friendly bear welcomes splashers as they run amongst jets and sprays embedded in GFRC trunks, logs and Aqua Rocks.
GFRC may be a surprising choice for spray play, but it stands up well to hot sunny days and constant cool drenchings.
Bear Branch Park
The Woodlands, Texas
Nature Is Everywhere
WATER
Establish a seaside scene within a landlocked community. Why not? The perfect color palette can make all the difference when it comes to capturing your aquatic-themed dream.
Add a sunny, comical fish that kids can climb on, up, through and across. Or enhance our Cozy Dome® with a unique turtle head to fully set the scene. Wavy poles go with the underwater flow.
Conejo Creek North Park Thousand Oaks, California
Nature Is Everywhere
WATER
Splash pads and water-inspired themes go hand in hand, and they’re welcome everywhere hot summer days are a thing. A lush aquatic color palette and a few shoreline flower sprayers bring the HO theme to fruition, regardless of your proximity to the sea.
Combine Mobius® Climbers in creative ways to build a boat featuring a scaleable prow and stern and porthole panels, like on this marine-themed playground.
Riverside Park Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Bohol Circle Immigrant Park Alameda, California
Nature Is Everywhere
AIR
Don’t forget to look up! Set this pair of fanciful, preconfigured structures side-by-side to entertain kids ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12 with a theme of floating through air.
Smart Play® Billows® and Breeze® playstructures are a great way to express a theme. Puffy clouds, an elevating kite and a balloon ready to take off are all part of the package.
Aside from soaring imaginations, there’s also plenty of climbing, and sliding fun. Add one or more freestanding play components for even more excitement.
EPCOT 2022 International Flower and Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Smart Play® Breeze®
Smart Play® Billows®
Nature Is Everywhere
AIR
Reach new heights with Volo Aire™. A related color palette creates an airy atmosphere as kids feel like they’re climbing into the sky itself. Plenty of sightlines along the way make for brilliant views as kids claim their favorite spots to perch.
Or opt for sculptural clouds like those atop these Netplex® and PlayBooster® playstructures. Stunning from a distance, they offer equally spectacular views as kids climb through the netted interior all the way to the top.
Clouds Park Volo Aire™
Bicentennial Park Hawthorne, California
LOCALIZE AND PERSONALIZE
Use creative shade solutions to bring the theme home—or become the theme all by themselves. Make It Yours
Upgrade the perforated panel on the Volo Aire™ with a nature-inspired image like leaves, zen waves, mountains or clouds. Then let the color palette do the rest of the work.
DigiFuse® panels are a cost-effective way to add nature in ways that are engaging, unexpected, even educational. Add a nod to nature with an imaginative DigiFuse panel, Permalene® accent, or both. Or incorporate Animal Tracks-themed DigiFuse panels plus scattered medallions for seek-and-find fun.
Zen Waves
Leaves
Mountains
Clouds
May Nissen Park, Livermore, California
Forrest Park Volo Aire™
May Nissen Park, Livermore, California
Humble Elementary School, Humble, Texas
12th Line Park, Innisfil, Ontario, Canada
Make It Yours
Add an Extra Dose of Natural Joy
Discover how both DigiFuse® and Permalene® can be used creatively to add touches of surprise and delight throughout the playground.
We-Go-Round®
with DigiFuse® Panels Day Ranch Park, Bluffdale, Utah
DigiFuse® Butterfly Day Ranch Park, Bluffdale, Utah
Permalene® Bumblebee and Flower Steppers Day Ranch Park, Bluffdale, Utah
References
1. Hartig et al, (2014). Nature and health. Annul Rev Pub/Health, 35, 207-28.
2. Christian et al, (2015). The influence of the neighborhood physical environment on early child health and development: A review and call for research. Health Place, 33, 25-36.
3. Dadvand et al, (2014). Inequality, green spaces, and pregnant women: Roles of ethnicity and individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Environ Inter, 71, 101-108.
4. Agay-Shay et al, (2014). Green spaces and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Occup Environ Med, 71(8), 562-9.
5. French et al, (2013). Time outdoors and the prevention of myopia. Exp Eye Res, 114, 58-68.
6. He et al, (2015). Effect of time spent outdoors at school on the development of myopia among children in China. JAMA, 314(11), 1142-1148.
7. Dolgin, (2015). The myopia boom: Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions, Some scientists think they have found a reason why. Nature, 519, 276-278.
8. https://www.horizonhealthnews.com/the-truth-about-children-andoutdoor-play/
9. https://news.sanfordhealth.org/childrens/play-outside/