September 25, 2015 - 16:49
/oneworld/changing-our-story-2015/playing-parking-lots
Industrial ruins, are spaces on the urban fringe found in most cities. They are wastelands, unkempt parks, alleyways, culverts, and edge lands. They have a rusty aesthetic to them and are full of danger and risk but provide space for low surveillance, carefree play.
Adventurous and expressive play “offers potential for a range of playful somatic- engagements with space and materiality, according to Edensor. Haabibi experienced this first-hand as they put plastic cups, flowers, and old toys to use in the concrete grounds of their neighborhood’s parking lot, their own industrial ruin. The powerful imagination children possess allowed for these small materials to make a beautiful playground even when there was “seldom a park around to play” (Haabibi.)
Edensor writes about the difficult journey to playing in an industrial ruin. He describes how this journey involves the need of climbing under fences, or windows or walking in edgy, concrete terrain. Haabibi and their friends always had a mission of finding a place to play, but it was never easy. They write of how they “always made our journey fruitful using our infinite range of imagination.” It was difficult to find a space where they could play freely, but as active children they did not mind the challenge, and rather felt joy in the quest of finding their own playground.
Haabibi lined rectangular spaces in parking lot, built inside of those spaces, decorated, and laughed during her childhood. Haabibi’s experience in the parking lot was no less playful than a child’s experience in a public playground. Haabibi’s plastic cups allowed for tea parties, the flowers created a beautiful entrance to their “playground”, the few toys that were there were enough to imagine the lot as a toy store. It wasn’t the materials that mattered, it was the imagination, it was the freedom, and it was the joy that was tied to these children’s will to play in this environment.
Edensor writes that areas typically bordered by obstacles “testify to a material looseness that allows creative play and dwelling in less regulated space.” This rustic parking lot was a space where Haabibi and others could be free to play as they wish. They used this freedom and their vivid imaginations to create a variety of different scenarios, imagining themselves in many different places. However, this is not the typical vision for a playground and many parents would shy away from the idea of allowing their kids to play in such dangerous areas. Although this version of a ruin allows for the kind of expressive, adventurous play children love; it also leaves them susceptible to harmful materials, strangers with bad intentions and out-of-control vehicles. Edensor wrote, “ruins perhaps provide an ideal environment for this kind of outdoor, unsupervised and risky play; but this is an environment which is commonly perceived as being off-limits to children and young people.” This creates and all or nothing space for many children that don’t have access to “safe” playgrounds. Haabibi, for example, would not have a choice of where to play. So if play is essential to development, what does that mean for children with no access to these playgrounds that make parents feel they’re safe?
If children can use play as a form of development, if they can “find their selves” by “losing themselves in disordered spaces” (Edensor.), then we have to allow them to embrace those spaces, those ruins. We cannot limit their adventure and expression for fear of what danger they will cross. In doing so, we are hindering their journey to adulthood. If Haabibi hadn’t had the opportunity to travel to the parking lots with their friends, there is a chance things might have gone differently for them. Spending countless hours between four walls repeating the same boring games or not playing at all would change their personality, prevent them from acquiring new skills, and take away their sense of adventure and expression. Edensor notes that play is not the antithesis of production but it result in positivity. Ruins specifically are “well-used places, sites of pleasure and leisure as well as spaces for productive and generative practices” according to Edensor.
Whether a child is sliding down a slide in a safe neighborhood’s park or playing pretend in a nearby parking lot, they are playing. Play will allow children to express themselves, become confident people, and learn lessons that can be applied to every-day life. Even the most dangerous play, the one that entails adventure and risk, is invaluable to a child’s life. It teaches them skills that they cannot learn within four walls. So these ruins, like the one Haabibi grew up playing in, are not to be feared, but utilized to their full potential in aiding our children’s developments.