The Brutalist Playground

About

Commissioned by the RIBA, The Brutalist Playground shines a light on the abstract concrete playgrounds designed as part of post-war housing estates in the mid-twentieth century. Often made from concrete, such playgrounds were cast into housing estates such as Churchill Gardens, Pimlico; Seamount Court in Aberdeen and the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield in sculptural forms, presenting a distinct move away from previous playground design.

2015 Turner Prize winners ASSEMBLE and artist SIMON TERRILL have worked with RIBA curators to recreate these play structures in reconstituted foam, creating an interactive playground where the viewer becomes participant and in this way completes the work while offering a renewed understanding and critique of the architects’ original designs and intentions. Archive images of the original playgrounds are projected on the walls.

The Edge and the University of Bath are delighted to bring this family friendly exhibition to Bath for the first time during the University’s 50th Anniversary year. It’s the first of two exhibitions acknowledging the concrete origins of Bath’s 1960s campus which went on to incorporate buildings designed by celebrated architects of the era including proponents of British Brutalism Alison and Peter Smithson.