Students at The Hand in Hand School, image courtesy Project OPENmotion
One is in Israel, one in Portland. One has already been completed using tree branches. The other is seeking funding for its manufacture. But both are a testament to how design can be a compelling progressive force that unites people.
First, there is the project William Fritts and his partner Michelle Ricker, through their nonprofit organization Project OPENmotion, saw completed recently at The Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem. Hand in Hand is a bilingual school where Arabic, Christian and Jewish kids learn together and are taught in both Hebrew and Arabic. Fritts and Ricker tapped 12 graduate design students from the nearby Bezalel Academy, the top architecture and Design University in Israel, to corral the children and teachers and get their input on the design through a four-day workshop to generate the design and construction.
Building a playground at The Hand in Hand school, image courtesy Project OPENmotion
"We first scoured the Jerusalem municipal tree cutting grinding facility and recycling center for the raw materials, which cost no more than the diesel to run the delivery truck from the center to the school," Fritts explains. "We used the collected sticks, branches, yucca fronds, irrigation tubing and tarps as the foundation design constraint. The K-12 kids toured us around their campus and told us of their dreams for making the place more 'playable'. The girls wanted places to chat and the boys wanted to kick a ball yet get out of the sun too. From that we all designed then built two “igloo” structures, two shade structures, a swinging hammock bench and two soccer goals. These were mostly made by the hands of over fifty K-12 kids as we guided and loosely directed."
"What we heard from both the K-12 kids and the graduate students was amazing," Fritts continues. "The little kids came in on the second and third day saying they had started gathering similar free materials in their neighborhoods to start building places to play with their friends at home. They were so happy that they could do this for free; it had not previously occurred to them. The graduate students, who were all Jewish, were struck by the way the kids from cross-cultural roots could create and work side by side in harmony with no idea that they couldn’t. Most of them had never spoken to an Arabic person before, much less an Arabic child. They said, 'If there is hope for peace in the Middle East it will come from this place and from these sorts of activities together.' This of course brought waves of emotion to us."
William Fritts and Michelle Ricker, founders of Project OPENmotion
Fritts was trained as an architect and worked in the profession for 10 years, including work on the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, then later stints at Portland's GBD Architects and furniture manufacturer Herman Miller. After receiving an MBA, he started the interior environments and furniture company Intelligent Design in 2001; the company's first main project was providing all the furniture for the Seattle Public Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas. Later in the decade, Fritts switched focus to sustainable design and in 2007 and started the company Solidcore.
Fritts says Ricker is really the visionary behind project, which she conceived. Her expertise is in health and diet (she's a registered dietitian) and tackling childhood obesity. The founder of a company called New and You, she has worked in a wide array of health, exercise and nutrition positions in clinical and executive levels and often lectures internationally on these topics of expertise.
Fritts says today Project OpenMotion takes up about a quarter of his time."We call OPENmotion an initiative for now," he explains. "We select four to five relevant projects per year that have the greatest potential impact on local community building, kids health effect and green design teaching using simple, found materials."
OPENmotion's current projects include a playground for the TEDxAustin festival next February, an installation for the Design Museum in Holon, Israel, and one at Wow and Flutterville here in Portland. Fritts says they are also in discussion with the Architecture + Design Museum in Los Angeles, where he is a board member.
Harper Goldberg, photo by Benjamin Brink, courtesy The Oregonian
The other inspiring playground was inspired by one four-year-old little girl, Harper Goldberg. When she was just a few weeks old, her parents discovered that Harper suffers from Emanuel Syndrome, an exceedingly rare disorder with only 200 or so documented cases worldwide that causes severe developmental delays, rendering her unable to walk or talk.
Harper loves her neighborhood park, but she can't use the slide or climb on the play structure. But her parents hope to transform a portion of North Portland's Arbor Lodge Park into a place where Harper and children of all abilities can play together. Harper's father, Cody Goldberg, has led an effort to build a playground North Portland's Arbor Lodge Park that is accessible to children (and adults) of all abilities.
Goldberg envisions an all-inclusive play structure by Boundless Playgrounds, a Connecticut company that integrates wheelchair- and walker-friendly elements into play equipment. He was inspired by a similar structure in Washington Park, the only one of its kind in Portland. Goldberg and his wife approached the Portland Bureau of Parks and Recreation and were advised to approach their local Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association first. When they did, "I attended in January and in February made a presentation asking if they would endorse the concept," Goldberg recalled in a phone interview. "That night they actually voted overwhelmingly to support it and said they’d like to make it a priority for the community."
Since then, the Goldbergs have formed a nonprofit organization to help raise funds for the park. After a May 2 article about the effort in The Oregonian, "We got a flood of donations even though we hadn’t started our capitol campaign," Goldberg added. RFPs have since been sent out to find an entity to build the customized playground by Boundless Playgrounds and create an appropriate setting. They hope to have the playground completed in time for Harper's birthday next year on July 8 (which she happens to share with my grandma).
Play facility by Boundless Playgrounds at Hoover Elementary School, Medford
How will the playground look? Goldberg says it will not just be accessible but inclusive. "The key difference between accessible and inclusive is it invites people of all abilities to get everywhere. Someone in a wheelchair can get to the same point where someone climbing a wall together. You can play togethet no matter what your abilities are. The keys are ramped access to the highest point and smoothed surfacing, usually rubberized. There are also a lot of other play elements. We're adding some of these spacially interesting designs that kids with autism are said to respond to, for example. There are these cool looking mosaic tiles that have play elements on them. There’s a lot of other play elements at a level for someone in a wheel chair, like a raised sandbox."
"What’s important for us about this project is first and foremost it’s giving our daughter a place to play. But in the broader sense, it’s sending a message to all people that inclusion is important. It’s inviting people of all needs into everything that’s happening."
North Portland Community Works, a local nonprofit serving organizations in the area, is providing fiscal sponsorship, or legal and tax-exempt status, to Cody's organization, Harper's Playground, which he started this year. The project is expected to cost about $200,000, based on $100,000 for the equipment, $40-50,000 for surfacing, and other expenses. Harper's Playground has received a $10,000 pledge from Reliable Credit Association, but overall only 7.5 percent of the cost has been raised. Here's hoping they capture the rest of their needed funds soon.
Goldberg has also come to believe that the playground sought for Harper and other special needs kids overlaps with larger issues of what's called universal or barrier-free design. "It starts for us with Harper and other children with other needs, but it’s grown to the Elderly and adults with special needs," he says. "Most elders would benefit from a sloping ramp to the top, to be able to engage with their grandchildren. It goes a lot further. As a person who grew up able bodied, I could play everywhere I wanted. I think all projects should now be universally designed."
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