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The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030

Singaporean Childhood Memories: Playground History Reflects Local Life

Singaporean Childhood Memories: Playground History Reflects Local Life

Source:The iconic dragon playgrounds are a shared memory for Singaporeans (Photo by Shutterstock)

How do playgrounds develop over time as social environments and human needs keep changing? How do the playgrounds of the past influence the selection and design of future playgrounds?

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Singaporean Childhood Memories: Playground History Reflects Local Life

By Yi-ying Lin
Opinion@CommonWealth

This exhibition is dedicated to our playgrounds – to all of the playgrounds we built in the past as well as the ones we will build in the future.

From April to September of 2018, the National Museum of Singapore held the exhibition The More We Get Together: Singapore’s Playgrounds 1930 – 2030, which retraced the development of local playgrounds since the 1930s and envisioned the playgrounds of the future. Although the exhibition was not large, it highlighted three distinct phases in playground development (1920-1960, 1970-1990, 1990-present) and also touched on many topics currently being discussed in connection with Taiwan’s outdoors playgrounds.

“The story of Singapore’s playgrounds is the joint history of Singaporeans – How we built friendships through playgrounds, played our favorite games together and also got to know our neighbors.”

According to the exhibition guide, Singapore boasts one of the highest playground densities in the world. Since playgrounds were located at the center of many neighborhoods, they have become a shared nostalgic memory for locals. Therefore, the exhibition features the playgrounds that many Singaporeans know from their childhood days, virtually consolidating a collective memory. The curators believe that playgrounds can stimulate imagination, connect people and also convey our aspirations for the future.

Exhibition Board The More We Get Together (Source: Yi-ying Lin)

Let the Children Play at Singapore’s Iconic Playgrounds!

Almost a century ago, children in Singapore, like those in Taiwan, played outside in nature, on vacant plots of land, in the ditches or in lanes and alleys. As more and more people flocked to the city with growing urbanization, calls grew louder for the construction of public parks and playgrounds. Also playing into this trend were hopes to stem the spread of tuberculosis by encouraging people to spend more time in fresh air outdoors.

In 1928, Singapore built the first public playground at Dhoby Ghaut. The exhibition also featured photographs of that period and oral history recordings, in which local people recounted their memories of playing there as kids.

In the 1960s, as housing demand kept rising, the city’s Housing & Development Board (HDB) began to build public housing in the form of high-rise apartment blocks, thus meeting the basic housing needs of the local population.

Although the housing shortage was solved by the middle of the 1970s, urban planners noticed that many people felt alienated after moving away from their old neighborhoods. Therefore, they began to build more public facilities in the new communities, including playgrounds, to bring people together.

In the beginning, they bought ready-made playground equipment. Later on, however, the urban planners wanted to build playgrounds with a more distinct Singaporean touch. Therefore, architects and designers with the HDB began to plan and design their own playgrounds, hoping to create playgrounds that told stories, attracted children, and connected to the community, reflecting its unique character.

One of the in-house designers, Khor Ean Ghee, created the iconic “dragon playgrounds” featuring a dragon-shaped slide covered in mosaic tiles. Like the terrazzo elephant slides in Taiwanese playgrounds, the dragon slides have become a shared memory of the Singaporean people. One of my friends, who was born in the 1980s, has fond memories of happy childhood days spent playing at dragon playgrounds. Unfortunately, many of these playgrounds were subsequently demolished, and only a handful of these iconic places remain in old housing estates.

The playgrounds that Khor Ean Ghee designed are all very significant to that era, including the dragon, tree house and pelican playgrounds. And then there are the watermelon playground design of 1989, the Humpty Dumpty of 1990, the dragon boat of 1987, and so on. The exhibition also highlighted the materials that were mostly used in playground construction at the time such as concrete pipes, terrazzo, mosaic tiles and rubber tires. Back then, most playgrounds were placed in a bed of fine sand.

The cute Watermelon Playground (Source: Yi-ying Lin)

The exhibition used photographs, oral history (recordings of older people describing how they played at the playgrounds as kids), and videos (children on swings or merry-go-rounds) to document the playground impressions of local people. At the same time, visitors were asked to jot down their memories on small slips of paper. Using multimedia, the exhibition presented playground memories and also enabled visitors to better understand Singapore’s history from the perspective of ordinary people.

Old photograph of children playing at a playground (Source: Yi-ying Lin)

Playgrounds must be Fun, Safe and Allow Kids to Explore

Like Taiwan, Singapore has also always debated how to balance the need for safety without compromising the fun factor of playgrounds. In 1999, Singapore defined a safety standard for playgrounds, known as SS547, which guides the design, safety and maintenance of playground equipment.

After these standards came out, many traditional sand-based playgrounds were demolished due to safety considerations, and the sandy surface was replaced by rubber mats. Over time, the traditional playgrounds made way for modern playgrounds with plastic flooring and sets of playground elements such as monkey bar ladders, slides and swings that could be put together in different combinations.

During that stage, commercial playground providers began to emerge in Singapore, and multinational players entered the market. Among these were Mexplay, Playpoint (exclusive Singapore partner of Danish play solution provider Kompan, also distributes Monstrum), Semec (founded in 1984, Singapore’s oldest playground provider) and CT-Art Creation. Singapore began to build playgrounds that were more modern, innovative and tailored toward more adventurous playing. More inclusive playgrounds emerged as well as playgrounds that were planned and built with the involvement of local residents such as Canberra Park. These represent the look of Singapore’s major playgrounds today.

In a post on his Facebook page, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed admiration for the “creatively designed, physically challenging and plentiful” playgrounds in the German capital Berlin, noting that adventurous play made children more confident and resilient. He also said he hopes to see the HDB create more such spaces in Singapore.

As for the imagination of playgrounds in 2030, visitors were asked to answer questions on their playground preferences and habits, and provide personal information such as age and address via a computer program. The software would then generate a customized playground on the computer screen.

What kind of  games will our children’s children play? (Photo courtesy of author)

Taiwan and Singapore have similar climates, are both densely populated and boast large public parks as well as small neighborhood parks. Some of Singapore’s more interesting playgrounds, such as water theme parks, natural playscapes or playgrounds that mainly use natural materials, could serve as models for Taiwan. Similarly, other aspects such as shading, diverse playground surfaces, designs that integrate playgrounds into surrounding nature, and parks that meet the needs of younger and older generations could all be used as inspiration.

When our children have grown up and become parents themselves, where will they take their kids to play? What will the playgrounds of the future look like? Should Taiwan hold an exhibition one day, documenting the evolution of its playgrounds, and how could we put it into context?

We might admire Singapore for breaking away from employing standardized, ready-made equipment in its playground design or for investing massive resources in the planning, construction and maintenance of entire public parks and playgrounds.

However, throughout Singapore’s playground history, civic participation remained a mere footnote, since playgrounds were planned and built by the Housing and Development Board and the National Park Board in a top-down approach, although the playground industry and local companies also had their role in promoting more diverse and interesting facilities.

Still, the situation in Taiwan is quite different. Parents and children are taking an active role in designing playgrounds, speaking out and making sure that their voices are heard. This bottom-up approach deserves to be appreciated. In some ways, the history of Taiwanese children’s playgrounds is in the making, with all of us being part of it.

Translated by Susanne Ganz
Edited by Sharon Tseng


Opinion@CommonWealth website is a sub-channel of CommonWealth Magazine. Founded in January 2013 with its main focus on social, humanity and policy issues and opinions, Opinion@CommonWealth is dedicated to building a democratic, diverse platform where multi opinions can be presented.

Currently, there are approximately 100 columnists and writers co-contributing on Opinion@CommonWealth to contemplating and exploring Taiwan's future with the Taiwanese society.

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