So I looked this up. It's the viewing/sitting/fidgeting area for an interactive art installation at the San Francisco airport called the Butterfly Wall. As a kids area, yeah it's still a bit sterile and eye-rollingly "sophisticated," but they left out the actual attraction, a tank-like thing with very satisfying-looking hand cranks that raise little goassamer-winged mechanical butterflies that than then descend like fancy versions of the parachute men you'd get from the dentist because he won't keep candy. I've seen tonally similar things at a dozen different parks, museums, and botanical gardens, and this one is actually kinda nice in that being indoors it can be a little more delicate.
::: spoiler pics
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As others have said, most kids areas I've seen are much less ST:TNG-coded, and even SFO has others that are "better." My kid is through the "every random play area must be experienced" phase, but she's traveled a lot, and we've seen tons of aviation themed mini-playgrounds and open spaces with primary-colored benches along the walls.
Pet peeve time: this kind of cherry-picked observation is weaponized laziness, the social media equivalent of stand-ups thinking it's clever to muse, "why isn't the whole plane made of the black box stuff?!"
his kind of cherry-picked observation is weaponized laziness, the social media equivalent of stand-ups thinking it’s clever to muse, “why isn’t the whole plane made of the black box stuff?!”
It's attention chum.
Hence, the blue checkmark.
It's mind boggling to me that blue checkmark Tweets are the most upvoted/commented things on Lemmy. Didn't we come here to escape that?
Ig you didnt look closer. Its actually fairly high and has a sphere at the top. Can't impale on it but it does look rather dangerous, a shitty merry go round perhaps.
I remember seeing a pretty cool one when i was in Brussels. Its was also completely walled off, off limits for non staff adults so parents could actually leave their kids there in safety while doing grown up stuff.
I think that's a bike stand.
Are you kidding? That looks pretty similar to the Enterprise bridge in TNG. I absolutely did star trek make believe.
All they need is a giant LCD in front of me showing random images of Romulan ships and I'd make due with this sort of design.
They even have a carpet and all and it's made of Sisko jr's jumper.
That carpet looks… not so clean.
children.
If this is Star Trek, then it is Odo's room from DS9.
So I looked this up. It's the viewing/sitting/fidgeting area for an interactive art installation at the San Francisco airport called the Butterfly Wall. As a kids area, yeah it's still a bit sterile and eye-rollingly "sophisticated," but they left out the actual attraction, a tank-like thing with very satisfying-looking hand cranks that raise little goassamer-winged mechanical butterflies that than then descend like fancy versions of the parachute men you'd get from the dentist because he won't keep candy. I've seen tonally similar things at a dozen different parks, museums, and botanical gardens, and this one is actually kinda nice in that being indoors it can be a little more delicate.
::: spoiler pics
:::
As others have said, most kids areas I've seen are much less ST:TNG-coded, and even SFO has others that are "better." My kid is through the "every random play area must be experienced" phase, but she's traveled a lot, and we've seen tons of aviation themed mini-playgrounds and open spaces with primary-colored benches along the walls.
Pet peeve time: this kind of cherry-picked observation is weaponized laziness, the social media equivalent of stand-ups thinking it's clever to muse, "why isn't the whole plane made of the black box stuff?!"
It's attention chum.
Hence, the blue checkmark.
It's mind boggling to me that blue checkmark Tweets are the most upvoted/commented things on Lemmy. Didn't we come here to escape that?
"the internet is 5 giant websites filled with screenshots of the other 4"
A more perfect description does not exist.
Haha you resolved my uncanny valley while looking at this. It's like a set in a studio
Right?! My first thought was, that's the bridge of the Enterprise-D
Thank you for sharing this, it's cool!
what even is that thing on the left? gravity coil???
No, you walk them in and it locks their heads in place so you can re-shod them before releasing them back into the wild.
Isn't shod past tense? I'd write it "...can get them re-shod..."
I used to work with a guy named Reshod.
Sounds pretty past tense to me!
I'm more concerned about the thing on the right.
Hey kids, you can either swing around on the gravity coils on the left or you can go to the right and impale yourself!
Ig you didnt look closer. Its actually fairly high and has a sphere at the top. Can't impale on it but it does look rather dangerous, a shitty merry go round perhaps.
Ahh you're right. It kinda blended in with the cushion behind it and just looked like it ended there with a really sharp tip
Seat checker.
If you can fit through the 3 concentric rings then you don't have to purchase a second ticket.
IMO the people who design children's play areas are generally not that great at it. I say that as a preschool teacher.
I remember playgrounds like this when I was a kid. Was dope AF
Apparently these were contributing too much to Darwinism so they had to make them safer and more sterile.
it would be a good idea to let the children design their play areas. you'd probably need to guide them a bit though
For starters, we're gonna need at least three T-Rexes...
that is a fine idea, and also totally a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_playground
Yes and you forgot the best part. The community must come together to build it.
They aren't just hiring some random out of the Home Depot parking lot.
Full video about these
https://youtu.be/tgZxRMUpoPE
Sounds like a massive liability tbh. Playgrounds need to adhere to high safety standards, for very good reasons.
Hmm yes. Liability. One of the top 10 reasons the world has gone to shite.
Ah yes, we can all do with some more dead children.
wow that's so cool, I would've loved that as a kid
Yeah, me too. I visited one in London a few years back, and it looked like a ton of fun
If you'd asked me at the age of 9 I would have said, the entire playground should only be swings, everything else is unnecessary.
Younger children might not have appreciated the result very much.
but there were never enough swings, tbf
like, four good swings is not enough for a hundred children. not if there isn't a bunch of other stuff too. and even then... six is so many more
of course one child should not decide for all chileren :P
Are you implying they didn't run this idea of 3 concentric hoops, and a random
stakepipe sticking vertical in front of kids first?!Any part of an airport can be a play area if you're creative enough.
That's what I tried to tell the security as well, when they pulled me off a wing
creative enough = not afraid of getting arrested
Any. Part.
Brb, gonna squeeze into the underground avgas pump
Or for that matter, any part of the plane!
They know how much children love sharp angles.
I've seen a few airports with children's play areas and none of them looked like whatever this is.
Either way I wouldn't want to touch them, guaranteed corona
I remember seeing a pretty cool one when i was in Brussels. Its was also completely walled off, off limits for non staff adults so parents could actually leave their kids there in safety while doing grown up stuff.
Looked it up,
The one at the airport near here has this model plane thing that you can go inside and has slides for exits. It's pretty sweet.
That's cool. But is there a playground for children somewhere?
“Ensign Crusher, engage”
Looks like they thought they were doing an art installation. I'm sure lots of meetings and work-lunches occurred.
Oh yeah. Someone brown-bagged the shit out of that play area.
Seems it actually was supposed to be an art installation lol.
One of the airports in Warsaw has fidget spinners bolted to the wall 😭 even that’s outdone this.
Ngl, that would have amused my ADHD ass for hours
There’s actually a good one in St. Louis. It even has a cockpit that you can explore too, and a control tower.
Some do OK
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UypAQYTUY6A
The monkey-bar wings idea is a pretty nice touch, actually, as is figuring out a way for it to be outside, or maybe just accepting that it COULD be.
You were allowed to leave your parents side at the airport?
It was a different time before 9/11....
The one at Boston Logan is pretty good. All soft padded surfaces and everything.
I'm sure they have to work within ridiculous bureaucratic constraints