Every child comes alive in a play area. Play sparks children’s imagination, releases their energies and lets them have fun! The provision of high quality facilities for play not only contributes to the development and well-being of the children involved but to those around them, families, groups and society as a whole.

A report by CABE (the Campaign for Architecture in the Built Environment) suggests that some local authorities have an over-reliance on buying equipment from a catalogue, or what is sometimes known as the ‘KFC’ syndrome – kit, fence and carpet, leading to dull and unimaginative playgrounds.

At Admiral, our play spaces and play schemes are individually designed for your requirements, harmonising the needs of the children with the surrounding landscape and retaining a strong focus on natural play, where children can create their own world of adventure and make believe. The play areas we design fuse natural products such as logs and boulders with high quality play equipment to provide an exciting balance between safety and enjoyment. We believe that learning to judge risk, for example in jumping from a boulder or climbing frame, is an important part of a child’s development and our designs are stimulating and challenging but within a safe and controlled environment.

For those for whom active play is less easy, or who just need quieter surroundings, we also design sensory gardens as a separate space, or part of a larger play area. Here, children and adults can smell and feel the texture of different plants, hear the air rustling through plants or wind chimes, or enjoy the gurgle and splash of water as it passes through the garden.

In short, our aim is to design and build exciting, inspirational places where children love to go and where parents and teachers are happy to take them.

Inclusion and the Disability Discrimination
Act 1995

Admiral believes and whole heartedly supports the philosophy (and the legal requirement under the Disability Discrimination Act) that disabled children have the same right to play and be included as children with no disability. All our schemes are designed with this in mind and follow the principles of the Disability Rights Commission (now incorporated into the Equality and Human Rights Commission).

These six principles of Inclusive Design are as follows:

• 1. Diversity and difference – the understanding that with each impairment, children will have different disabilities in addition to cultures and even languages
• 2. Ease of use – no one should be forced to exert undue effort, experience discomfort or a loss of dignity
• 3. Freedom of choice and access to mainstream activities – independent access should be available, but equally support and assistance should be provided to those who require it
• 4. Quality – this should be equal to the rest of the development and where possible should exceed minimum standards
• 5. Legibility and predictability – consideration should be given to languages, braille, images, tactile surfaces, colour contrast and a static element to storage boxes, bins, benches and loose equipment
• 6. Safety – environments must be safe whilst inspiring a sense of risk