Envisioning enriching and dynamic water play sites
By Chelsea Hoffman and Max D'Aurizio
Water is inherently fascinating—children (and adults) are instinctively drawn to it. It’s a natural focal point for communal play. In the U.S., water-play spaces are often designed as splash pads or automatic spray systems. These installations let children run through jets of water, cool off on hot summer days, and enjoy bursts of excitement.
While these spaces are valuable—especially as summers grow hotter and cities grow denser—they often fall short of satisfying a deeper need: the desire to experiment with water. Look closely at many New York City splash pads with brightly colored remnants of broken balloons—evidence of children repurposing water jets to fill balloons. Buckets, toys, and makeshift tools abound, signaling a longing for greater interaction and control.
Splash pads are a crucial part of the water-play ecosystem—but they are not the whole story. To unlock the full potential of recreational water play, designers must move beyond splash systems to create spaces that engage children’s bodies and minds. That means designing for manipulative water play—spaces where children can move, shape, and redirect water themselves.
Introducing pumps, levers, dams, and channels invites problem-solving, creativity, cooperation, and deep-sensory engagement. These tools transform a play site into a laboratory of curiosity and joy.
This approach mirrors how children have always played in natural streams and creeks—digging channels, building dams, and floating sticks. For many children today, especially in urban or suburban environments, access to such natural waterways is limited. Manipulative water play recreates this hands-on, immersive experience in safe, public settings.
Over the past two decades, forward-thinking designers have embraced this approach. At APE Studio, the team has created 46 water-play installations in 22 states. In these spaces, children don’t just run through water—they engage with it in ways that promote experiential learning. From these projects, the following several core design principles have emerged that can benefit the field as a whole:
Vision
All great water-play sites begin with a clear, intentional vision of how they will benefit the surrounding community. Broadly, water-play environments fall into two categories:
- Automatic Water Play: These are splash pads and spray parks designed primarily to get users wet. These systems offer immediate sensory stimulation, encourage motor play, and are great for cooling off large groups. However, they offer limited opportunities for deeper engagement.
- Manipulative Water Play: These spaces invite children to interact directly with water using tools like pumps, gates, channels, and movable dams. Children are real-time actors, using creativity, collaboration, and judgment to shape their experiences. When paired with sand or other loose materials, play opportunities multiply exponentially.
A great starting point is to imagine the types of experiments, games, and adventures children might pursue. That said, the ability to anticipate how people will use a space is inherently limited. The goal should be to create an open-ended environment—one that supports self-determined play, not just designer-determined interactions.
Designing Effective Water-Play Spaces
Several key considerations can help ensure a water-play site is safe, engaging, and sustainable:
- Code Compliance: Because manipulative water-play environments are relatively new in the U.S., they are not always clearly defined in building codes. Pool codes may be applicable. Early conversations with code reviewers and planning boards are essential. Teams don’t want to discover mid-construction that they’re required to add a lifeguard or build more restrooms.
- Drainage: A water-play space requires a drainage system that is both legally compliant and thoughtfully designed. A key consideration is knowing where water will be directed. The APE Studio team proposes that, in most manipulative water-play environments, drainage to the stormwater system is appropriate—and may even offer benefits related to water-rate structures. The reasoning is that children in these settings are not fully immersed as their water interaction is typically limited to hands and feet.
- Water Depth: Water doesn’t need to be deep or abundant. A core principle of APE Studio’s approach to manipulative water-play is that children create the water flow themselves—often using hand pumps or other activators. This adds play value and teaches the importance of water as a resource. Children can find just as much joy in a narrow runnel of water as in a wide artificial creek.
- Materials: There is no such thing as imitation nature. Children immediately know if a rock is real or faux. Using real materials—stones, wood, metal—gives children an authentic understanding of the natural world. Loose materials like sand greatly increase the number and type of possible play scenarios.
- Topography: Elevation changes attract attention and activate curiosity. A steep slope requires only a trickle of water to become exciting, while flatter sites generally need more water for more engagement.
- Planting: Plants are a vital part of manipulative water-play design. They bring beauty, texture, and movement to the space—and they provide loose materials like petals, leaves, and seed pods for children to incorporate into play. Designers should plant with intention and play-value in mind. Avoid species that drop excessive or problematic debris.
- Comfort: Provide shaded areas and ample seating for caregivers. Amenities like restrooms, rinse-off stations, and even sunscreen dispensers help families stay longer and enjoy the space more fully.
- Maintenance: Involve maintenance personnel early in the design process. Their insights can make or break a site’s long-term success. Prioritize accessibility and ease of upkeep. Where feasible, use potable water systems over chlorinated ones. Chlorine accelerates corrosion in metal fixtures, shortening their lifespan and increasing maintenance costs.
Developmental Benefits And Sensory Stimulation
Water’s rich sensory profile makes it one of the most engaging materials for play. A well-designed site should leverage its full potential:
- Tactile: Children learn about texture, pressure, and temperature through touch. Combining water with sand or soil expands the range of sensations and invites messy, joyful exploration.
- Auditory: The sounds of water—splashing, gurgling, trickling—draw attention and enhance auditory processing. Thoughtful elevation and material choices can enrich the site’s natural acoustics.
- Visual: Watching water flow strengthens visual tracking and focus. Reflections, ripples, and refracted light turn the environment into a living canvas. A floating leaf or the shimmer of moving water can become an object of fascination.
Cognitive and physical development are also deeply supported by manipulative water-play. Pouring, building, diverting—all these activities hone fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, and an intuitive grasp of scientific principles like flow, cause and effect, and volume.
Additional Benefits To Consider
- Agency and Creativity: Good design offers choice—whether in how to redirect water, what to mix with it, or where to dig. Open-ended experiences foster imaginative thinking and confidence.
- Social Interaction And Inclusivity: Water naturally draws people together. Manipulative environments often inspire storytelling, teamwork, and negotiation. These sites are also welcoming to children of different ages and abilities.
- Risk-Taking And Resilience: Manipulating water presents manageable risks—wet surfaces, surprising currents, leaky dams. These are opportunities for trial and error, for discovery, and for building emotional resilience.
Manipulative water-play doesn’t replace traditional splash pads—it complements them. It broadens the understanding of what water play can be, not just refreshing, but also deeply engaging, exploratory, and meaningful. When planning a park or play area, think beyond designing a space to cool off. Create a space that invites children—and their caregivers—to play with water: freely, purposefully, and with wonder.