Sanmaru Playground

_hyogeun_

“Not even children. good and bad”
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A place that impressed me quite a bit when I was a kid still remains in my mind. You may be thinking, 'Why is that now?', but it was fresh to me at the time. I spent my childhood in a kindergarten belonging to a public elementary school. The elementary school itself was large and large, so it was called the Korean version of Hogwarts, and in fact, there was no place in Ulsan that could beat this place in terms of scale. After school, it was the perfect place to hang out with friends, and since I couldn't visit all the places because of my small body, it must have felt better to go to a new place every day.
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The kindergarten was located in the basement on a large site, so to go to the kindergarten from the front door, you had to go down a ramp. Fortunately, the distance between the ramp and the classroom is wide, with a playground between them and plenty of light, creating an ambiguous space that is underground but not underground. That ambiguous space was a hideout for me, and it was also a pretty romantic space where I could only see the sky when I stood there and looked up. Back then, like now, power lines, noisy signboards, and tall apartments were covering the sky.
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In front of the entrance to the kindergarten, which is reached by going down the ramp, the ground floor sidewalk passes overhead, so it was a dark space even in the daytime. The playground where the sunlight shines brightly and the place where I stand have always been in harmony with the contrast of black and white, and the impressive and good experience of that time is still clear to this day.
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He spent his school days at the Korean version of Hogwarts until the 4th grade, and then transferred to a school next door. The school was in the shape of a typical matchbox, a straight building that could be seen everywhere. So I don't have many good memories there. When I was young, I knew how to tell the difference between good and bad.
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Many of the good memories of that time come to mind even now as an adult. Of course, even the bad memories remain traumatized and tormented me, but in fact, I have read somewhere that the brain forgets bad memories quickly, so my thinking is not without credibility.
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That's why I'm very interested in the 'children' spaces that I see coming and going these days. Like the space mentioned in the introduction, if we had experienced many good spaces when we were young, would the one-size-fits-all space we take for granted fill our surroundings equally?
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The 'Sanmaru Playground', which I will introduce today, is located on a steep hill and draws people's attention, and it resembles the moment I experienced at that time.
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In the playground, which looks like a spaceship or a volcano, there is a jungle gym that is over 9m tall. Enough for children to show off their explorer temperament, and the end of the ramp that wraps around the jungle gym becomes an observatory, an open space that adults can enjoy as well. Since only the top of the building is open without a single window, only the jungle gym shines brightly like the stage lights. The ramp naturally becomes a dark space, and the depth is deep, so the contrast between black and white is clearer.
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In every moment of running and falling and getting hurt, touching the soil at the playground, feeling the smell and feeling, and becoming an explorer who enters the jungle gym and explores the maze, this space remains as a background of memories. The good moments I experienced as a child are forever remembered, and just as I longed for a good space until now as an adult, maybe the children who experienced this place will long for a good space in the future. So there should be more spaces like this around us.
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#A space that gives you a good _experience
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39, Changsin 6ga-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Daily 09:00 - 19:00 (Closed on Mondays)