Problem
A castle, made of cartons, rocks, and old branches, by a group of children for themselves, is worth a thousand perfectly detailed, exactly finished castles, made for them in a factory.
Solution
Set up a playground for the children in each neighborhood. Not a highly finished playground, with asphalt and swings, but a place with raw materials of all kinds—nets, boxes, barrels, trees, ropes, simple tools, frames, grass, and water—where children can create and re-create playgrounds of their own.
Related Patterns
… inside the local neighborhood, even if there is common land where children can meet and play - Common Land (67), Connected Play (68); it is essential that there be at least one smaller part, which is differentiated, where the play is wilder, and where the children have access to all kinds of junk.
Make sure that the adventure playground is in the sun - Sunny Place (161) ; make hard surfaces for bikes and carts and toy trucks and trolleys, and soft surfaces for mud and building things - Bike Paths and Racks (56), Garden Growing Wild (172), Child Caves (203) ; and make the boundary substantial with a Garden Wall (173) or Sitting Wall (243) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 367.