MORE PLAY VALUE FROM PLAYTOP®

When is play surface not a play surface?… but a games board, a riverbank, a jungle or simply a pure flight of imagination? Simon Wicks of Charles Lawrence Surfaces plc considers the influences that have changed the look and purpose of the U.K.’s play surfaces and takes a view on where a trend for colour and creativity might lead next.

Three years ago, when I first joined Charles Lawrence, there was a general view in the market that a play surface was simply there to provide a safe foundation for the rather more interesting play equipment. Single colour surfaces were the norm and, at the time, the demand for wet pour surface registered perhaps a little below that of the alternative surface options of tile, bark and sand.

How things have changed in just three short years!

A real shift in approach became truly evident around the early end of 2001. Some designers, specifiers and architects began to investigate how the play surface could be made part of the overall environment in which it was laid. We started to see more requests for colour, for design and, more importantly, for themes. For the first time, we were being asked about the true limitations of the product and also being invited to become part of the consultative process.

This also coincided with renewed appreciation for the enduring qualities of wet pour surfacing. The love affair with bark and sand surfacing really began to fade when the exorbitantly high maintenance costs involved in simply keeping the surfaces safe and clean started to impact on already tight budgets.

Problems with tile surfaces also emerged when it became clear that it did not represent a long-term product choice – in comparison, the first Charles Lawrence Playtop^® surface, installed in 1977, was still in use and in excellent condition. Market attention turned again to wet pour and, to this day, has not wavered.

So in 2001 we experienced a trend towards new and more intricate designs. Games, such as Hopscotch, set into the surface became very popular and now specifiers were using the design of the surface to engage and hold interest as well as using design to appeal to certain age groups. Suddenly we were installing surfaces that incorporated footsteps and stepping-stones, suns and stars, rivers and canal boats.

Then in 2002, Charles Lawrence produced and issued a new suite of marketing literature to support the rebranding of Playtop®, the leading Charles Lawrence play surface product. The literature showed the real extent of the usage of Playtop^® and the almost limitless colour options available. The impact of this new campaign had an almost instant response amongst our customer base, which was dominated by the major play equipment manufacturers.

The end customer – Local Authorities, schools, nursery chains – started to ask equipment manufacturers to devise themes for the installations. A ‘Nature Trail’ theme would specify timber play equipment with hedgehogs, badgers, foxes and butterflies depicted in the surface. A more educational theme would ask for a map of the world to be designed into the surface. At one school, a cycle path and cycle park has been laid into the playground surface, which the children religiously keep to – allowing the younger children to play in the central play area in greater safety.

These days customers are prepared to allocate as much budget to the surface as to the equipment itself and that is a trend that shows no sign of slowing.  Customers are spending more and the market for Playtop^® continues to grow as we replace more and more non-wet pour surfaces. Sister company, Charles Lawrence International, is working at full recycling capacity to produce enough of the raw material, the rubber granulate, to keep up with demand.

And future trends? Certainly wet pour play surfacing has matured as a product and there is no other product option on the market that comes close to matching its qualities. The new challenge for us is always to meet the creative demands of the designers, which today are looking to shift the idea of play surface as being flat and one-dimensional to being textured, tactile and three-dimensional. A couple of installations experimenting with this idea have produced the most stunning, interactive and visual play environments. It’s an exciting time for us – after all we are in the business of creating fun – can’t think of a better job (apart from perhaps a Ferrari test driver?!).