The Brutalist Playground installation shot from S1 Artspace, photo:alan bull
In 2015 artist Simon Terrill and the architecture collective known as Assemble was commissioned to make "The Brutalist Playground," an exhibition/installation of lost, Brutalist playgrounds made out of foam, instead of concrete. The designs were based on archival info from the Royal Institute of British Architects, where the project was first installed. Last year, it traveled to S1 Artspace in Sheffield, somewhere in England, I guess, and now it has opened at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany. Though you're more likely to see it blasted across every design blog still opening their press kits. [I grouse because literally none of this basic context was included in the churnalist versions of the story I saw. What's la plus ca change? in German?]
TBP @RIBA install with sweet hex stools, image via:assemble
In Sheffield, Terrill and Assemble created a limited edition print, a pleasant, abstract silkscreen image of disintegrating foam. Which is awesome, but I wish they'd release 75 of these hexagonal foam-covered stools, too. They look equally nice stacked or strewn about. If your kid picks it to shreds after a few months, you can always just glue another piece of foam on it. [And even if they don't. Terrill's artist site shows how chewed up the installation got by the end. Brutal.]
The Brutalist Playground, 14 Jan - 14 Apr 2017 [design-museum.de via architecture]
The S1 Artspace version in 2016 included a re-creation of a local destroyed Brutalist playground [s1artspace.org]
S1 Artspace's show also resulted in an Assemble X Simon Terrill colabo print edition that looks like crumbling foam. £220, still available [s1artspace]
The Brutalist Playground v1.0 at RIBA, 2015, including an exhibition website and related info [architecture.com via throughjo]
The Brutalist Playground project page at Assemble [assemblestudio.co.uk]
the same, at Simon Terrill's web place [simonterrill.com]
