Byen i Sandkassen / The City in the Sandbox

The City in the Sandbox documents the the field research undertaken by Kristian Byskov and Margarita del Carmen at Copenhagen’s ‘staffed playgrounds’, and offers a critical analysis of how the staff’s pedagogical approaches can function as a model for better development of urban space. An approach that would encompass more meaningful and empowered inclusion of the city’s residents - and not least its children, who inhabit the city in ways that adults have often forgotten but could profitably learn from. The authors ask what the city's urbanisation would look like if a pedagogical perspective drove the planning, design and decision process.

At the same time, they place their analysis in the context of Marjory Allen’s visit to Denmark and how she found inspiration for Britain’s adventure playgrounds in the so-called ‘Junk Playground’ in Emdrup. They also discuss the artist and activist Palle Nielsen’s creation of playgrounds in urban space together with residents, as well as inside the Moderna Museet in Stockholm during the 1968 exhibition ‘The Model’ - a ground-breaking artist experiment which has been somewhat overlooked since, but like the staffed playgrounds offers a powerful example of the innovative ways in which children and their adults can change our ideas about the way things are done.

The book is written in Danish and features a full English translation.

DETAILS

• 192 pages

• Softcover, flexbind

• b&w images