Why Berlin's holocaust memorial is such a popular playground

This article highlights people's proactive role in exploring the rich physical, sensory, representational and social potential of even the most sombre and purposive landscapes, appropriating spaces to suit their varied desires. Memorials and public spaces are both luxurious uses of scarce resources. To create such settings which are central, public and open is to recognise and invite diverse, new and unpredictable behavioural possibilities rather than serving narrow, predetermined instrumental activities. These gathering points imply and stimulate social interaction and 'transfunctional' usage, transcending the orderly routines of everyday life. We know already how design meets universal human needs for weather protection and everyday practical activities. Individuals' needs and interests for remembrance or informal playing are much more varied, less well understood, and much harder to support or control through design.