Children’s Playground: How to Design Safe and Sustainable Play Areas

This comprehensive guide shows you how to design children’s playgrounds, choosing safe flooring that complies with EN1176, EN1177, and EN 71-3 regulations, with eco-friendly solutions in recycled rubber.

A World Tailored for the Little Ones

Designing a children's playground means creating more than just a play space. It means building a place where imagination, movement, and growth come together every day in total safety.
Today, choosing safe, sustainable, and innovative solutions is essential for creating modern, welcoming play areas that comply with current regulations.

What is a Playground and Why is it So Important

A playground is a space created to help children grow. Here they can develop motor, social, and emotional skills. Free play is very important. A well-designed play area stimulates imagination. It also encourages movement and promotes socialization.

To be truly effective, a playground must be functional, accessible, and safe. The selection of materials compliant with European regulations and proper design are the foundations for ensuring positive and safe experiences.

Outdoor and Indoor Playgrounds: Two Worlds to Discover

The choice between an outdoor or indoor playground depends on the project's needs.
Outdoor spaces, such as public parks or school gardens, require weather-resistant materials and flooring capable of effectively absorbing impacts.

Indoor spaces, such as playrooms or play areas in shopping centers, favor modular solutions, soft surfaces, and colorful paths.

In every context, the flooring is one of the key elements, crucial for the safety, aesthetics, and overall durability of the area.

Flooring: The Heart of Safety

Adequate flooring is essential to protect children from potential falls and make the play environment safe and welcoming.

The impact-absorbing flooring, in recycled rubber, by Casei Eco-System offers an optimal combination of durability, safety, and environmental sustainability. Among the many products that make up the ECO-FUN family (Impact-absorbing flooring and equipment for playgrounds), we mention some of the most requested solutions:

• ECO-SOFT: impact-absorbing flooring compliant with EN 1177 standard, suitable for play areas where the fall height exceeds 60 cm.

• ECO-PAV: draining flooring for walkways and areas without risk of fall height greater than 60 cm.

• ECO-SOFT PERSONAL: allows for graphic customization of the surface with ground games, such as "hopscotch" or "days of the week".

Play Equipment and Flooring: How to Choose While Complying with Regulations

Every piece of playground equipment must be evaluated in relation to safety and free fall height.
The European standard EN 1177 requires that any play equipment with a fall height greater than 60 cm be installed on flooring that meets impact absorption requirements according to the HIC (critical fall height) calculation. You can learn more about this topic by reading the dedicated article.

Here's how to navigate this:

Play equipment that generally requires flooring compliant with EN 1177:

• Swings: due to the height reached during oscillation.

• Slides: if they don't exceed 60 cm in sliding height, where's the fun?

• Multi-play structures: turrets, suspension bridges, adventure courses.

• Climbing walls: always require impact-absorbing surfaces.

• Some spring riders: depending on the model, they may exceed the limit.

For these situations, ECO-SOFT represents the ideal choice as it is possible to select the thickness of the plates based on the critical fall height value that must be respected.

Play equipment that may not require impact-absorbing surfacing:

If the free fall height is equal to or less than 60 cm, it is possible to install play equipment on surfaces such as ECO-PAV, without the obligation of impact absorption in compliance with EN 1177.
Concrete examples:

• Graphic paths: games drawn on the ground, achievable with ECO-SOFT PERSONAL.

• Tricycle and mini-vehicle tracks: which do not involve a risk of falling from height.

• Manipulation games: tables, tactile panels.

• ECO-BALL and ECO-PLANET: outdoor games, made of recycled rubber, with a fall height of less than 60 cm.

Safety and regulations: compliance and quality

A safe playground must comply with various European regulatory standards, including the main ones:

• EN 1176: safe design of playground equipment.

• EN 1177: requirements for impact absorption of surfaces.

• EN 71-3: chemical safety of materials in contact with children.

The recycled rubber flooring we produce complies with these standards, ensuring protected, durable play environments free from hazardous substances.

Maintenance: protecting the value of the playground

Periodic maintenance is essential to ensure the safety and performance of playground flooring over time, especially in outdoor areas. Aging and weather conditions can alter the surface characteristics, making regular checks necessary to ensure that the flooring remains compliant with EN1177 standard.

The frequency of recommended interventions in the following table is not directly defined by the regulation, but is an example derived from general technical guidelines. (We recommend relying on the technical specifications provided by the manufacturer)

Sustainability: a concrete commitment to the future

Using recycled materials means reducing environmental impact and promoting a more circular economy.
Casei Eco-System's rubber flooring from end-of-life tires combines safety, durability, and respect for the planet, demonstrating that even play can contribute to building a more sustainable future. Recycled rubber has excellent shock absorption properties combined with great stability over time. In short, an ideal material for this type of application. ECO-SOFT is one of the few REMADE^® certified floorings, a certification that can attest to the percentage of recycled material contained in the product.

Designing a safe, inclusive, and environmentally friendly playground requires attention, expertise, and compliance with regulations. For this reason, it is always advisable to turn to companies with many years of specific experience in this sector. We can't play with children's future!

Discover all the solutions we offer and create a playground where fun, safety, and sustainability go hand in hand.

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