Isamu Noguchi's playscape

Octetra, c. 1968, Spoleto, Italy



Slide Mantra, 1966-1989, black granite. Installed at West 8-chome, Odori Park, Saporro, Japan.




Detail of Playscapes, 1975-76. Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia.


The creation of playgrounds and play sculpture was an important part of Isamu Noguchi's attempt to make sculpture useful in everyday life. Noguchi designed his first pieces of play equipment in 1939 for Ala Moana Park in Hawaii, but these were not constructed. When Noguchi designed Playscapes (1975-76) in Atlanta's Piedmont Park, the only Noguchi playground to be completed in his lifetime, he included a modified version of the swing from his Hawaiian proposal along with new play objects. In 1968 Octetra -- a pre-cast, modular play sculpture over and through which children climb -- was installed outside the cathedral in Spoleto, Italy and in Kodomo No Kuni park outside of Tokyo. Noguchi continued to design new play sculptures, some of which have been installed in his last playground project, Moere Numa Park in Sapporo, Japan.