The brief by Art for the World was to design a playground for children who have experienced war and destruction and have been robbed of the experience of childhood. This playground challenges the traditional model of robustness.

Inspired by a passage in the Tarkovsky movie, Stalker, the poet tells the scientist in the ruins of a nuclear disaster that 'life is fragile and soft and death is hard and strong.'

Yellow fabric is suspended from a 5m3 frame, oscillating with the wind. Children who have experienced such devastation are to take refuge in the softness of this experience, to see it as a place of escapism and reflection, optimism and wonder.

Though the prototype is situated outside a school in south east London, the structure can be modified to suit specific site conditions in war torn/devasted areas.

Peckham, London.

Completed, 2004.

In collaboration with Shirazeh Houshiary.