Lucy Gunther:

At most playgrounds, parents don’t have anywhere to sit and socialize with one another; as a result, kids to be are surrounded by hovering parents and are prevented from taking risks and learning to overcome their fears at young ages. Sound Barriers is a series of translucent elastic string walls that vibrate at modified frequencies based on sounds that are picked up from microphones set around the playground. Sound Barriers helps children have the freedom to take risks on the playground, while still allowing the parents to watch their children. In of an emergency, the parents can access a walkway through gaps in the strings to reach their kids. Sound Barriers is being designed and built for a playground in Reyhanli, Turkey, in partnership with students from a local school called the Karam House. Sound Barriers will surround the adult sections of the park (designated as reading, gardening, picnic, and board game areas). The local kids and adults will come to this park and use it as a community space and place to play.