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The Sara Jackman Playground
The Sara Jackman Playground
Toronto, Canada
Special Mention, 2025 A+Awards, Concepts - Architecture +Joy
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Other Projects by PLANT Architect Inc.
The Sara Jackman Playground
Toronto, Canada
Special Mention, 2025 A+Awards, Concepts - Architecture +Joy
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2024
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
$1M - 5M
The University of Toronto’s Jackman Institute of Child Study (JICS) envisioned its Laboratory School’s redesigned playground as an accessible environment for creative play and nature study, where preschool-to-Grade Six students could manage graduated amounts of risk, at their own pace. As the JICS publication Natural Curiosity states, evidence indicates that “contending with reasonable risk – both physical and psychological – is essential for building the security, resilience and resourcefulness children will need to fully and satisfyingly engage in their own lives.”
Previously, this compact, constrained site was a flat asphalt surface enclosing a few trees. Now, it’s a multi-level activity hub. In between the sand-and-water-play zone and a
boomerang-shaped climbing structure, a figure-8 tricycle track loops around two gathering areas: a story-time pavilion with a leaf-shaped, stormwater-collecting canopy, and a wood mound that becomes a winter sliding slope.
To house props such as tarps and pool noodles – central to improvised play at JICS – we designed two colourfully shingled, organically curvy sheds: ‘The Onion’ and ‘The Potato’. Climbing-wall grips embedded in ‘The Potato’ enable it to double as a loft-like play area.
We conceived the building’s new accessibility ramp – a project requirement – as a site-traversing means of introducing new interactive play opportunities. Curving around a heritage bay window and rising toward the new accessible entrance, the ramp encloses a sensory garden nook along its inner edge, filled with plants varying in shape, colour, texture, and fragrance. Child-sized niches line the outer edge, and stepped log segments invite kids to climb through splayed pickets and onto the ramp.
“Both the number of injuries and incidents of social conflict have gone down since the new playground opened,” says Laboratory School principal Richard Messina. “The kids have so many places to play, and they are so excited and challenging themselves.”
Previously, this compact, constrained site was a flat asphalt surface enclosing a few trees. Now, it’s a multi-level activity hub. In between the sand-and-water-play zone and a
boomerang-shaped climbing structure, a figure-8 tricycle track loops around two gathering areas: a story-time pavilion with a leaf-shaped, stormwater-collecting canopy, and a wood mound that becomes a winter sliding slope.
To house props such as tarps and pool noodles – central to improvised play at JICS – we designed two colourfully shingled, organically curvy sheds: ‘The Onion’ and ‘The Potato’. Climbing-wall grips embedded in ‘The Potato’ enable it to double as a loft-like play area.
We conceived the building’s new accessibility ramp – a project requirement – as a site-traversing means of introducing new interactive play opportunities. Curving around a heritage bay window and rising toward the new accessible entrance, the ramp encloses a sensory garden nook along its inner edge, filled with plants varying in shape, colour, texture, and fragrance. Child-sized niches line the outer edge, and stepped log segments invite kids to climb through splayed pickets and onto the ramp.
“Both the number of injuries and incidents of social conflict have gone down since the new playground opened,” says Laboratory School principal Richard Messina. “The kids have so many places to play, and they are so excited and challenging themselves.”
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