Denmark

The first junk playgrounds were based on the ideas of Carl Theodor Sørensen, a Danish landscape architect, who noticed that children preferred to play everywhere but in the playgrounds that he designed. In 1931, inspired by the sight of children playing in a construction site, he imagined "A junk playground in which children could create and shape, dream and imagine a reality". His aim was to provide children living in cities the same opportunities for play that were enjoyed by children living in rural areas.^[11] The first adventure playground was set up by a Workers Cooperative Housing Association in Emdrup, Denmark, during the German occupation of the 1940s. The playground at Emdrup grew out of the spirit of resistance to Nazi occupation and parents' fears that "their children's play might be mistaken for acts of sabotage by soldiers".^[12] Play advocates sometimes emphasize the importance of adventure playgrounds for children of color in the United States, where policing "can feel like a kind of occupation".^[12]

Mischievousness and sneaking around were criminalized in Nazi occupied Copenhagen, Adventure Playgrounds were born as a response.
— Play:groundNYC, #playwork ^[13]

The UK

Marjory Allen, an English landscape architect and child welfare advocate, visited and subsequently wrote a widely-read article about the Emdrup Adventure playground titled Why Not Use Our Bomb Sites Like This? and published in the Picture Post in 1946.^[14] While Marjory Allen's article is often credited with the introduction into the UK of "the idea of transforming bomb sites into 'junk playgrounds', historians of the Adventure playground movement have pointed to the role played by other experiments carried out by youth workers in the UK. For example, "Marie Paneth, an art therapist heavily influenced by Freud, independently developed the concept of permissive play as a tool for ameliorating childhood aggression in her work running a blitz-era play centre in London although not specifically incorporating the elements of a Junk/Adventure playground pointing to her role in the history of UK specific Playwork development."^[15][16]

The Americas

Canada

• TELUS Spark, in Calgary, Alberta has a Junkyard Playground open in the summer months.^[18]
• The city of Calgary, in Alberta, Canada, piloted a mobile adventure playground in five city parks during the summer of 2016.^[19][20]
• Toronto Ontario hosted an Adventure Playground from 1974 until the mid-1980s. It was a part of the revitalization of the waterfront called Harbourfront Centre.^[21]
• The City of Coquitlam in British Columbia created an Adventure Playground in the summer of 2018 as a pilot project.^[22][23]

United States

• The Yard (The first adventure playground in the United States)
• Adventure Playground in Berkeley, California
• Huntington Beach Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach, California
• Adventure Playground in Irvine, California^[24]
• Sacramento Adventure Playground in Sacramento, California

• The Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone in the Ithaca Children's Garden, Ithaca, NY
• Adventure Playground at The Parish School in Houston, Texas
• Play:groundNYC on Governors Island in New York City.
• SCV Adventure Play Foundation in Val Verde, CA.^[25]

Asia

Japan

• The Setagaya Play Park or "Junk Playground" in Hanegi Park in Setagaya ward, Tokyo, Japan.^{[26][27][note 2]}
• Children’s Dream Park 川崎市子ども夢パーク (or "Yume Park") in Shimosakunobe, Kawasaki Takatsu Ward, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.^[28]

Australia

• The Venny, Kensington Adventure Playground. Kensington, Victoria.

Europe

Denmark

Denmark has several adventure playgrounds, now known as Byggelegeplads (Building-playground) and formerly as Skrammellegeplads (Junk-playground).^[29] From the first site in Emdrup, the idea spread across the country and at the height of the popularity in the 1960s, there were about 100 adventure playgrounds in the country.^[30] Present active adventure playgrounds in Denmark includes:

• Skrammellegepladsen in Emdrup, Copenhagen.
• Bredegrund Byggelegeplads on Amager, Copenhagen.^[31]
• Remiseparken, on Amager next to Bredegrund.^[32]
• Regnbuen in Hvidovre a suburb of Copenhagen.^[33]
• Rødovre Byggelegeplads in Rødovre a suburb of Copenhagen.^[34]
• Byggelegepladsen Broparken, Rødovre.^[35]
• Byggelegepladsen Rønneholm, Rødovre.^[35]
• Højkjær Byggelegeplads in Brøndby a suburb of Copenhagen.^[36]
• Skolemarken in Aarhus.^[37]
• Søndergård in Lystrup a suburb of Aarhus.^[38]

Germany

• Abenteuerspielplätze und Kinderbauernhöfe in Berlin, or AKiB for short, is a federation of adventure playgrounds and children's farms in Berlin, Germany^[39]

Sweden

• St Hans bygglekplats in Lund
• Borgarparkens bygglekplats in Lund
• Klostergårdens bygglekplats in Lund

Switzerland

• Robi-Spiel Aktionen—An organization of adventure playgrounds in Basel, Switzerland^[40]

United Kingdom

• Camberwell, England
• Eccleshill Adventure Playground, also known as The Big Swing (Bradford, England)
• Evergreen Adventure Playground, Dalston, London^[41]
• Lockleaze Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.^[42]
• Felix Road Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.
• St Paul's Adventure Playground, Bristol, UK.
• The Land (Adventure playground) in Wrexham, Wales, UK
• The Triangle Adventure Playground in Oval, South London. London's oldest adventure playground still located on its original site.
• Meriden Adventure Playground Solihull, West Midlands
• Glamis Adventure Playground Tower Hamlets, London