Reviving the forms and craftsmanship of sculptors Jean-Marie and Marthe Simonnet to create unique play structures for today’s schoolyards.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Today, school playgrounds are undergoing a transformation: greening, climate considerations, and new uses. Yet playground equipment remains standardized. How can we reintroduce a project-based approach to the design of school playground equipment?
This line of thinking stems from the work of Jean-Marie and Marthe Simonnet, sculptors who have been exploring play since the 1970s. A visit to their studios in Les Chesneaux, in the Loiret region, reveals molds, models, and craftsmanship that are still very much alive. Their play-sculptures, with their simple, open forms, become vehicles for imagination and personalization.
While architecture is developing a culture of reusing materials, The challenge of playgrounds proposes extending this line of thinking to the forms themselves, questioning the need to constantly produce new ones. Each form embodies a geometry, an assembly, and a memory of its uses. Reusing it does not mean copying it, but understanding its qualities in order to reinterpret it.
Phase One: inventory, document, and restore. Create an archive of the Simonnet collection, catalog playground equipment in Parisian schools, and restore a “Maison Cache-Cache.”
Phase Two: reinterpret, assemble, and prototype. Reuse molds and geometric forms to devise new combinations, test materials, and install a prototype in a pilot school.
At a time when many Parisian schoolyards are set to be transformed, the goal is to breathe new life into this heritage and regain the capacity to manufacture per
Today, school playgrounds are undergoing a transformation: greening, climate considerations, and new uses. Yet playground equipment remains standardized. How can we reintroduce a project-based approach to the design of school playground equipment?
This line of thinking stems from the work of Jean-Marie and Marthe Simonnet, sculptors who have been exploring play since the 1970s. A visit to their studios in Les Chesneaux, in the Loiret region, reveals molds, models, and craftsmanship that are still very much alive. Their play-sculptures, with their simple, open forms, become vehicles for imagination and personalization.
While architecture is developing a culture of reusing materials, The challenge of playgrounds proposes extending this line of thinking to the forms themselves, questioning the need to constantly produce new ones. Each form embodies a geometry, an assembly, and a memory of its uses. Reusing it does not mean copying it, but understanding its qualities in order to reinterpret it.
Phase One: inventory, document, and restore. Create an archive of the Simonnet collection, catalog playground equipment in Parisian schools, and restore a “Maison Cache-Cache.”
Phase Two: reinterpret, assemble, and prototype. Reuse molds and geometric forms to devise new combinations, test materials, and install a prototype in a pilot school.
At a time when many Parisian schoolyards are set to be transformed, the goal is to breathe new life into this heritage and regain the capacity to manufacture per
THE TEAM
Aline Portalier, an architect who graduated from ENSA Versailles, has gained five years of experience working at several firms, focusing primarily on renovation projects. For more than two years, her work on school facilities has led her to explore play spaces and their ability to stimulate children’s imaginations. Committed to “working together,” she views the architect as a bridge between knowledge, practices, and skills. Her experience in inventory, assessment, and construction fuels her interest in artisanal craftsmanship. Her research on the play sculptures of Jean-Marie and Marthe Simonnet, sculptors, extends this approach: documenting a heritage, understanding its forms and manufacturing processes in order to reinterpret them.
Aline Portalier, an architect who graduated from ENSA Versailles, has gained five years of experience working at several firms, focusing primarily on renovation projects. For more than two years, her work on school facilities has led her to explore play spaces and their ability to stimulate children’s imaginations. Committed to “working together,” she views the architect as a bridge between knowledge, practices, and skills. Her experience in inventory, assessment, and construction fuels her interest in artisanal craftsmanship. Her research on the play sculptures of Jean-Marie and Marthe Simonnet, sculptors, extends this approach: documenting a heritage, understanding its forms and manufacturing processes in order to reinterpret them.
