October 6, 2025 • 4 mins
We are on the hunt for the for the best playground in Mid Canterbury with EA Networks. Luke caught up with Ryan Archer from Playco - The country's largest builder of playgrounds. So safe to say he knows a thing or two about piecing them together. In this bonus part of the interview Luke starts by asking Ryan what is the actual purpose of a playground...?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Als will suggest the playgrounds that are a space for
the child to be able to break out into and
burn off a bit of steam in a relatively unsupervised manner.
But when you step outside of it and look into
to counsel playgrounds or just playgrounds on the whole, you
consider the primary target user group being children. With the
purposes to create a space which would stimulate a child's
(00:22):
imagination provides an exciting and engaging, adventurous, maybe structured or
unstructured opportunity. Playgrounds also to us, they have a responsibility
to help encourage and develop motor skills for children, help
them learn about finding and testing their personal limits. I
(00:43):
guess developing risk management skills.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
The old burning off steam bit. As a parent, I
like the sound of that. If it's a quiet drive
in the car on the way home, then you know
it served its purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely, But again a big advocate for playing alongside
my kids and all certainly turn up to the playground,
and I like to think of myself fun dad.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Even more so if it's worth but it needs to
drive home as Dad's asleep in the passenger seat and
the kids.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
In the back even better, even better, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So you've touched on it before, but it was also
keen to ask how do you balance fun with safety
when building playgrounds.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Councils and schools ask us to design playgrounds to the
National safety standards, but those themselves are a little bit ambiguous.
The way we see it's quite simple. We just come
back around to what makes the space engaging. If it's engaging,
it's fun. Danger and risk it's a perception. It's individually assessed.
(01:47):
What one child sees as risky, the next we'll see
is easy. So we.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Sort of have to.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Continue to ask ourselves the question of have we given
a play opportunity to every user? And if we can
succeeded giving an opportunity to everyone, then the space will
be fun and engaging and the risk just comes naturally
with play.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oftentimes you find the risk appetite and kids is far
greater than adults. There's this massive towering fort at the
George Glassie Park and timmeult Alice or race right to
the top of it. I get about halfway and think
this is why.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, yeah, kids are often regarded as fearless and much
the same as you. I had my daughter in the
weekend climbing a for meter structure and yep, she lost
her footing as she got to the top that she
had dad with her. So you know, that's a benefit
of plant along beside them. We're encouraging them to develop
their motor skills and take on this risk in a
(02:42):
safe place.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I feel like the answer to this next question may
surprise a lot appearance and potentially scare them. What kinds
of play do kids love most to their adults?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Off and overlook, I would suggest you force movement, and
force movement as being like anything that allows a child
to take flight or lose full control of their ability.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So that would be things like going down a slide
or spinning on a carousel.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
The stuff that gives Gwennie when she's baby sitting a
panic attack.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, one hundred percent. It's it's an easy one. Like
we know, it's a short term pain of being busy
for ten seconds and that feeling goes.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The kids love it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They love the feeling of feeling sick and being able
to walk wonky and tripping over it, and they put on
a show. They chalk it up a little bit. The
next thing would be where the child is able to
engage with the caregiver or the parents in an intergenerational
way so they can play alongside us. You know, there's
there's nothing better than watching parents enter the child's domain
(03:48):
and come to their level and play alongside them.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah yeah, we've got to we spinny disc thing that's
gone into the new playground at our new library, and
the speeds at some of those kids are spinning on that.
It makes me dizzy just watching.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, But I mean, that's that's the value of play, right,
is it's a fair chance those children didn't all turn
up to play together. They all turn up individually or
in their families, and now they're playing alongside each other,
and it's teaching, teaching these children the ability to establish
relationships and to to learn about each other's risk fresholds
(04:24):
and then to accommodate each other and in a safe space.
Als will suggest the playgrounds that are a space for
the child to be able to break out into and
burn off a bit of steam in a relatively unsupervised manner.
But when you step outside of it and look into
to counsel playgrounds or just playgrounds on the whole, you
consider the primary target user group being children. With the
purposes to create a space which would stimulate a child's
(00:22):
imagination provides an exciting and engaging, adventurous, maybe structured or
unstructured opportunity. Playgrounds also to us, they have a responsibility
to help encourage and develop motor skills for children, help
them learn about finding and testing their personal limits. I
(00:43):
guess developing risk management skills.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
The old burning off steam bit. As a parent, I
like the sound of that. If it's a quiet drive
in the car on the way home, then you know
it served its purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely, But again a big advocate for playing alongside
my kids and all certainly turn up to the playground,
and I like to think of myself fun dad.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Even more so if it's worth but it needs to
drive home as Dad's asleep in the passenger seat and
the kids.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
In the back even better, even better, Hey.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
So you've touched on it before, but it was also
keen to ask how do you balance fun with safety
when building playgrounds.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Councils and schools ask us to design playgrounds to the
National safety standards, but those themselves are a little bit ambiguous.
The way we see it's quite simple. We just come
back around to what makes the space engaging. If it's engaging,
it's fun. Danger and risk it's a perception. It's individually assessed.
(01:47):
What one child sees as risky, the next we'll see
is easy. So we.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Sort of have to.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Continue to ask ourselves the question of have we given
a play opportunity to every user? And if we can
succeeded giving an opportunity to everyone, then the space will
be fun and engaging and the risk just comes naturally
with play.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oftentimes you find the risk appetite and kids is far
greater than adults. There's this massive towering fort at the
George Glassie Park and timmeult Alice or race right to
the top of it. I get about halfway and think
this is why.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, yeah, kids are often regarded as fearless and much
the same as you. I had my daughter in the
weekend climbing a for meter structure and yep, she lost
her footing as she got to the top that she
had dad with her. So you know, that's a benefit
of plant along beside them. We're encouraging them to develop
their motor skills and take on this risk in a
(02:42):
safe place.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I feel like the answer to this next question may
surprise a lot appearance and potentially scare them. What kinds
of play do kids love most to their adults?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Off and overlook, I would suggest you force movement, and
force movement as being like anything that allows a child
to take flight or lose full control of their ability.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So that would be things like going down a slide
or spinning on a carousel.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
The stuff that gives Gwennie when she's baby sitting a
panic attack.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, one hundred percent. It's it's an easy one. Like
we know, it's a short term pain of being busy
for ten seconds and that feeling goes.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
The kids love it.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They love the feeling of feeling sick and being able
to walk wonky and tripping over it, and they put on
a show. They chalk it up a little bit. The
next thing would be where the child is able to
engage with the caregiver or the parents in an intergenerational
way so they can play alongside us. You know, there's
there's nothing better than watching parents enter the child's domain
(03:48):
and come to their level and play alongside them.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah yeah, we've got to we spinny disc thing that's
gone into the new playground at our new library, and
the speeds at some of those kids are spinning on that.
It makes me dizzy just watching.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, But I mean, that's that's the value of play, right,
is it's a fair chance those children didn't all turn
up to play together. They all turn up individually or
in their families, and now they're playing alongside each other,
and it's teaching, teaching these children the ability to establish
relationships and to to learn about each other's risk fresholds
(04:24):
and then to accommodate each other and in a safe space.
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