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Seven years ago, we started building playgrounds in Thailand. A rag-tag gang of volunteers, builders, artists, teachers, and parents built 40 playgrounds in 2 years.

It was crazy, and everyone was exhausted.

Then we put a few photos online and things got crazier. Playground requests started pouring in from around the world. People were reaching out from distant corners of the world, asking us how they could do the same: use the resources within their own communities to build spaces for their children to play. So we stopped hammering nails and started hammering keyboards. In 2010 playgroundideas.org was born – an online hub of free, open-source playground designs and resources, enabling anyone, anywhere to build a stimulating space for their children to play. We invited people to download our resources and asked them to upload a profile to the site and share their playground story. The first person to do so was Cameron in Huay Dtom, Thailand.

Then people started joining him. People from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, and France. 

Building playgrounds in Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Guadeloupe, and Guatemala. Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, and Nigeria. 

From Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Scotland, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, USA, Vietnam, to Zambia.

And this month, the 500th playground was added to the site: a playground for the small rural community of San Agustin Palo, in the Leyte province of the Philippines.

500 Playgrounds in 72 countries. We’re honored to be a part of this inspiring community of builders, students, parents, teachers, volunteers, architects, artists, and community activists, creating imaginative spaces for children to carry out the most important work of childhood – play.

We can’t wait to see the next 500 playgrounds.

The "Nuclear Stepper" is a a great low climbing element that can fill a large open space. The arms can transition to out to other play areas in the space.

Follow the link to get the step-by-step instructions for building your own “Nuclear Stepper." Note: must create a free user account to see full instructions.)

Got an idea for a playground element? Join our community and submit your designs here. 

The "Pentagon" element creates beautiful, tessellating patterns of climbing rungs from layered beams of timber. "Pentagons" can be built next to cubbies, platforms, or monkey bars to create more complex ladders to reach higher elements.

They can also contain fireman's poles within.

Follow the link to get the step-by-step instructions for building your own “Pentagon.”Note: must create a free user account to see full instructions.) Got an idea for a playground element?Join our community and submit your designs here.

Meet Tha Wah, a Playground Ideas superstar. He was the first hired employee of Go Play, the playground building initiative in Thailand that grew into what is now Playground Ideas.

In 2008, Tha Wah was involved in the construction of 33 playgrounds. He then went on to work forChild's Dream, an NGO which supports marginalized children and youth in the Mekong Sub-Region. Five years since his first playground build, Tha Wah is still at it; building spaces for play as a part of his work with Child's Dream. Check outone of his latest playgrounds:

Tha Wah was the brainchild of the "Tha Wah Car," first built at the CDC school in Maesot, Thailand.

Since then, the "Tha Wah Car" has been built around the world, as far away as Jinja, Uganda.

Follow the link to get the step-by-step instructions for building your own “Tha Wah Car.”Note: must create a free user account to see full instructions.)

Got an idea for a playground element?Join our community and submit your designs here.