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NatureGrounds®

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Best Practice Design Guides

NatureGrounds®

Nature Play Green Schoolyards

A growing body of research reveals a strong link between children’s experiences of being outdoors in nature and their psychological well-being and overall development. PlayCore has partnered with the Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, NC State University to develop NatureGrounds Best Practice guidelines to deliberately design nature back into children’s lives to benefit children’s play, physical activity levels, and to create richer play experiences for all users.

Playground that has a pirate ship, mushroom stools, and rocks, surrounded by trees and people. >
Playground with a large caterpillar sculpture that a child is standing on top of. The playground also contains people, flowers, and greenery nearby. >
A man and teenager walk across a rope bridge with trees shown above them >

The Science

A growing body of research reveals a strong link between children’s outdoor  experiences in nature and their psychological well-being and development. Another study demonstrated that, in an evaluation of a nature only playground, a built playground with no nature elements, and a combination of the two, the latter was shown to get higher use than the former. 

Health research recognizes that everyday outdoor play in nature is a powerful preventive strategy for healthy childhood development — including protection against childhood obesity. A generation ago playing outdoors in nature was usually taken for granted; but in today’s urban and suburban environments, natural spaces are often too remotely located for visiting on a regular basis. The playground model based solely on manufactured equipment is being reconsidered to meet the needs of a broader range of children and their families. The integration of natural components helps fulfill these needs as well as creating richer play experiences for all users. To promote this trend, naturalization is an effective strategy to stimulate, motivate, and encourage children’s play, and to increase the attraction of playgrounds for children and caregivers. The added comfort and aesthetic enhancement of nature encourage accompanying adults to also become enthusiastic users. 

A playground with green and tan color accents that showcases two slides, a bridge, and trees >
A playground resembling an all-wood playground set. There are also groups of people playing on the playground set as well >

Why Request NatureGrounds?

To promote these findings, PlayCore partnered with the Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design, NC State University to develop NatureGrounds, a comprehensive program that provides best practice guidelines for creating and retrofitting environments that integrate manufactured play equipment and the living landscape. NatureGrounds creates a dramatic shift in the standard playground design process by deliberately designing nature back into children’s lives, engaging communities in the process, raising physical activity levels, and creating richer play experiences for all. The Natural Learning Initiative (NLI) is a research and design assistance program of the College of Design of North Carolina State University whose purpose is to promote the natural environment in the daily experience of all children and families, through environmental design, action research, education, and dissemination of information.

Playgrounds designed with us utilizing this research are eligible for the National Demonstration Site designation and benefits.

Contributing Scholars

Our Scholar Network
Nilda cosco

Nilda Cosco, PhD

North Carolina State University Research Professor and Director of Programs; Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and Nature Learning Institute
Robinmoore cmyk

Robin Moore, Dipl Arch, MCP, ASLA

North Carolina State University Professor Emeritus; College of Design

Program Request

Fill out the form below to request your copy of NatureGrounds®