Baltic Street Adventure Playground is an adventure play facility in Dalmarnock, east Glasgow. The area hosted the main venues of the 2014 Commonwealth Games yet has little local provision for young people.

Baltic Street Adventure Playground was our first project outside of London. Developed in collaboration with Turner Prize-winning art and architecture collective Assemble, it was delivered in collaboration with Dalmarnock Community Centre, construction training centre First Steps Future Skills, and children and families who live nearby. The project uses the process of nurturing the playground into life to explore the role of the child in the city, and the legislative, material and social conditions that shape the opportunities available to them.

Taking inspiration from the post-war adventure play movement, the project is interested in uncovering the potential value that adventure play can offer to children growing up in an environment of relative scarcity and at a time of great change. Adventure playgrounds are child-led spaces where young people are encouraged to build, adapt and change their environment to suit their needs, where they are allowed to test and explore their own limits and achieve freedom and self-direction – rare in today’s increasingly risk-averse climate.

The research stage of the project fed into a programme of workshops and seminars that explored risk, play and adventure. Play Summit was curated by Nils Norman and Assemble as part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art in April 2014. The three-day event considered the state of play in Scotland and beyond through a series of free talks, workshops, discussions and a symposium bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners working in play from around the world.

The Playground is free and is open from 11am–6pm Tuesday to Saturday in the school holidays and 3pm–6pm Tuesday to Friday and 11am–6pm on Saturdays during term time.

More information on the Baltic Street Adventure Playground project.

Baltic Street Adventure Playground is a VELOCITY project delivered collaboratively by Assemble and Create London and is funded by Creative Scotland, Clyde Gateway and Glasgow City Council. Play Summit was produced in collaboration with Nils’ Norman and Collective Gallery.