Rethinking the Tot Lot: How Non-Linear Design is Reshaping Play

DELANO, Minn. – November 05, 2026 – For decades, the recipe for a municipal "tot lot" has remained largely unchanged: a set of low-incline stairs, a short plastic slide, and perhaps a primary-colored steering wheel mounted to a static platform. These linear designs provide safe, predictable environments for toddlers, but they often fail to sustain engagement or adequately challenge rapidly developing motor skills. Now, a shift in both developmental psychology and municipal economics is forcing a radical redesign of how communities build spaces for their youngest residents.

Landscape Structures Inc., a Minnesota-based manufacturer of commercial playground equipment, has introduced the Smart Play® Volo Pico+™, a playstructure specifically engineered for children ages two to five. Anchored by a central, steel-reinforced cable net matrix rather than traditional platforms, the structure departs entirely from prescribed pathways. It is a striking example of how modern design is attempting to solve a complex equation at the intersection of early childhood development, safety regulations, and public infrastructure budgets.

The End of the Prescribed Path

Young children are naturally driven to explore, yet traditional playground architecture often limits their choices to a single, repetitive loop. The Volo Pico+ addresses this by utilizing an open-format, 360-degree design. At its core is the LSI Flexx® Net, a proprietary cable system that allows children to climb, crawl, roll, and balance in multiple directions.

By removing traditional stairs and linear pathways, the design forces children to make constant, micro-decisions about their movement. This non-prescriptive approach aligns closely with current guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which advocates for open-ended materials that foster playful learning and creative problem-solving. When a child approaches a net rather than a staircase, there is no single "correct" way to reach the top.

"With Volo Pico+, we challenged ourselves to rethink what playground equipment for this age group could be," said John Tanner, chief product officer at Landscape Structures. "The result is a play experience that gives children the freedom to explore, make choices and discover new challenges—all while supporting the developmental needs of early childhood."

Internal play testing of the structure has yielded notable results, with observers reporting that children remain engaged for extended periods, often between 45 minutes and an hour. In the realm of early childhood attention spans, this duration indicates that the complexity of the structure successfully holds cognitive and physical interest far longer than standard equipment.

The Science of Calculated Risk

Introducing a steel-reinforced climbing cable matrix to two-year-olds inherently challenges the prevailing protective norms of early childhood playgrounds. For years, the industry trended toward maximum risk elimination, resulting in play spaces that, while safe, were often developmentally sterile.

Today, child development experts and pediatric physical therapists increasingly advocate for "risky play"—managed, age-appropriate physical challenges that build resilience, self-confidence, and executive functioning. When a toddler navigates a wobbly cable net, they are forced to engage their core, practice motor planning, and assess their own physical limitations in real-time.

"We are finally moving away from the over-sanitized playground," noted one independent pediatric occupational therapist who consults on community park designs. "A child cannot learn risk assessment if there are no risks to assess. A structure that requires a three-year-old to figure out where to place their foot on a shifting net builds neural pathways that a flat, plastic staircase simply does not."

However, this return to physical challenge does not come at the expense of regulatory safety. The Volo Pico+ is engineered to comply with rigorous international safety benchmarks, including ASTM F1487, CSA Z614, and EN 1176. These standards dictate strict parameters for critical fall heights and entrapment hazards, ensuring that the spaces between the cables are too small for a child's head or neck to become stuck, while the overall height remains safe for the target age group. It is a delicate balance of providing the illusion of danger while engineering out actual hazards.

The Economics of Play: Shrinking Footprints, Expanding Budgets

While the developmental benefits of the Volo Pico+ appeal to educators and parents, its most significant impact may be economic. For municipal park directors and city council finance committees, the cost of a playground extends far beyond the equipment itself.

Safety surfacing—most commonly poured-in-place (PIP) rubber—is routinely one of the largest capital expenditures in public park construction. Because PIP rubber is required to meet ADA accessibility standards and mitigate fall injuries, cities must install it beneath and around all play structures. At an installed cost ranging from $10 to $18 per square foot, and sometimes reaching upwards of $38 for specialized systems, the square footage of a playground directly dictates its financial feasibility.

By packaging 21 interconnected activities into a highly compact footprint, the Volo Pico+ drastically reduces the required square footage of safety surfacing.

"Space is a premium, but surfacing is a budget-killer," explained a municipal public works planner familiar with park procurement. "If a manufacturer can give me the same play capacity and developmental value in a footprint that is thirty percent smaller, the savings on the rubber surfacing alone can fund a shade structure, additional seating, or improved landscaping. It changes the entire financial math of a neighborhood park renovation."

This footprint efficiency is particularly crucial in dense urban environments where available land is scarce. The ability to integrate high-density, multi-sensory play—complete with ADA-compliant transfer points and interactive ground-level puzzles—into a tight perimeter allows cities to maximize their infrastructure grants without sacrificing community value.

Designing for the Future of Communities

As the global commercial playground equipment market expands—projected to reach $12.4 billion by 2035—the competition among major manufacturers like Landscape Structures, GameTime, and Playworld is driving rapid innovation. The shift is moving away from isolated pieces of equipment toward cohesive, consciously designed environments.

The Volo Pico+ also reflects a broader industry movement toward inclusive and sustainable design. Available with integrated shade to protect against UV exposure and designed to complement larger structures for older children, it allows landscape architects to create multi-generational spaces that look visually cohesive.

Furthermore, the employee-owned structure of Landscape Structures Inc., which has been operating since 1971, seemingly plays a role in its willingness to push design boundaries. By focusing on the long-term impacts of continuous play and universal accessibility, the company is demonstrating that the future of urban design must consider the youngest citizens. How a community chooses to build its playgrounds is ultimately a reflection of how it values early childhood development, calculated resilience, and the equitable distribution of public resources.