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Once upon a time, Japanese-born fiber artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam was exhibiting a large crochet sculpture in a gallery in Japan, when children started playing on the piece. Three years later, MacAdam completed her first large-scale crochet for kids. The lovely, loopy play structures have been a hit ever since.

 

The whimsical net structures offer children an explosion of color, texture and the bounciness of net — no cold metal or lifeless plastic here. Happiness ensues!

 

 

 

In 1990, Toshiko and her husband, Charles MacAdam, established Interplay Design and Manufacturing in Nova Scotia, Canada, to develop the concept of play "sculptures" on a commercial scale. The first project was for a national park located in Tokyo. The children’s park-in-a-park won a national design award in 1992. To this day the project continues to offer thrills and delight to the children lucky to play there.

 

 

 

The structures are as strong as they are lovely to look at and rely upon specially designed net which is resilient and responsive to the slightest movement.

 

 

The innovative designs allow tension to be maintained as the fiber stretches, ensuring safe play. In fact, each project is engineered by Norihide Imagawa, one of Japan’s pre-eminent structural designers.

 

 

To see more of the wonderful work, visit NetPlayWorks.

 

This story was originally written for Treehugger. Copyright 2012.

 

All photos by Masaki Koizumi except second from last, by Charles MacAdam

 

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