Train Station, meet Playground
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:25PM 
Okay. So not exactly high tech. Who cares. Wheeeeeee!
It’s officially called a “transfer accelerator” by Dutch railway maintenance company ProRail, but everyone else would say it’s a slide. An awesome slide. Installed next to a stairway at the newly renovated railway station Overvecht in the city of Utrecht, the slide offers travellers [sic] the opportunity to quickly reach the railway tracks when they’re in a hurry. But above all, the slide is a great instrument to make the city more playful.
[An embedded video in the linked source above takes you down the slide.]
The original post goes on to explain that “such a playful urban intervention can generate large-scale positive spin-off for a disadvantaged neighborhood like Overvecht.” I agree. I think playful spaces could be a whole new driver of urban economic development. If designed well (still figuring out what that means), a playful space making good use of technology could be endlessly playful and not merely a novelty.
A previous post on the topic: Playful Technologies for Urban Economic Development.
(via Dan Pink)
