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This playground is located next to the Liesing train station on the southern border of Vienna (about 500 meters from the border with Lower Austria). Close to the playground there are the Riverside shopping center (built at the beginning of the 2000s), the Liesing stream, Aqueduct, primary school and several kindergartens. The playground belongs to the Herbert Mayr Park, and children often run outside the playground and play under the trees. It is divided into two playgrounds: one for the little children and one for the elder kids. On the site are also a small football field and a skatepark. History of the area around. The history of the area around the playground is connected to the story of the Liesing brewery, which was founded in the mid-19th century. Previously, there was a monastery on the site of this brewery. Some remaining parts of the monastery were still used by the brewery for some time, but were later completely reconstructed. The construction of a brewery in this location was quite beneficial. It was close to the water supply, that came from the Liesing stream. The proximity of the railway (the Südbahnstrecke was opened shortly after the brewery in 1841) facilitated a fast and reliable supply of beer. In 1882, a siding for the Southern Railway was built next to the factory railway, so beer could be transported to the station without any problems. Due to the great distance from a residential city at that time, labor was cheaper and taxes were lower (including consumption tax). The beer sold well, the brewery grew and attracted new workers. This is how the urban infrastructure around the brewery began to develop. At the beginning of the 20th century, the architect Leopold Simony (he is considered a pioneer in the field of social housing construction) designed several houses specifically for the workers of the enterprise. These buildings directly border the territory of the Herbert Mayer Park, parts of them are clearly visible from the playground. Simony was the first architect to receive an award for a social building project for the working class. At the moment, the surviving houses of the brewery workers are protected as historical and architectural monuments. Nevertheless, these houses remain residential to this day. After the first World War a lot of social housing projects started the constructions around the area. Located close to the south side of the playground there are social housings built in the 1930s and also in the 1950s. The city was growing fast and the parts that previously belonged to Lower Austria became part of Vienna. New housing and construction projects at the beginning of the new millennium. In the seventies, the Liesingbräu beer was bottled for the last time. After that, only the bottling plants were in operation on the site, some brewery buildings were used for various social events. In 2005 the Liesing brewery burnt down. After which it was decided to demolish the buildings and put up a large shopping center and apartment complex in its place. The construction was led by a conglomerate of development companies (one of them was the “Wien-Süd” company which was constructing the social housing in the area for a century). The construction project included the city-villas and apartments, it was meant to make the area look more modern and beautified, to bring the “city” to the city border. Apartments in this residential complex were subsidized from the government, and thus more affordable for purchase. The ludic space and its inhabitants. The playground occupies a fairly large territory, which is not surprising given its location. A little further in the southwest from the playground there is an area with private residential buildings. To the north, across the creek, is the Riverside shopping center and upscale apartments. This is the largest play space in the area and also the most popular. Across the road from the site is a primary school and a bus stop. The bus stopping there comes from the Liesing bus and train station, which is an eight-minute walk from the playground. Life is moving fast around the Herbert-Mayr Park, people come and go all the time. Children are visiting the playground after school hours and are stopping by together with their parents on the way home. The playground has a water source, enough waste bins and a lot of banks and tables to sit. At the evening hours these tables are often occupied by neighbors who come to the playground to watch their kids and to have a chat. Due to the diversity of living space around the park there are people with different cultural and social background. At the late hours children go home and teenagers take their place on the playground. On the play area there are numerous swings and slides, as well as two fairly large kids’ castles, 2 bungees, a spider web climber, a sandbox and a trampoline. There is a lot of free space between them, kids are running back and forth in groups and play hide and seek on the whole area, constantly changing the locations. They use the playground equipment in new ways, especially if they are too small or too big for it. Sometimes they ask the adults for help, if they are not able to play with the equipment in the intended way. The bottom of the play area is covered with wood rasping so it is not too painful to fall down from the highs. After the rainy days it soaks water, so the playground doesn’t get covered with puddles, although kids love to play in them. The playground has an interesting landscape, some of its parts are hidden in the woods, there is a 10 meter high hill (which is used by teenagers to ride bicycles and by smaller children to play role games) and it is very close to the Liesing stream. Sometimes ducks are coming from the water and walk through the play area. If you go west from the playground following the Liesing stream you get to a silent place, which is hidden from the road noise and seems like a completely different more country side like space. In the summer there is a lot of grass on the both banks of the stream, where you can watch ducks and even meet a heron. This playground has a lot to offer to children, teenagers and their guardians. However, there is a number of inconveniences. There are no public restrooms on the site, which is not very convenient for toddlers, who often have to relieve themselves in the bushes. The playground for older children is also open to the small ones who often come to play on it; its southern border is not fenced and the play area is located two meters away from the roadway. This is a safety issue, especially for the smaller children, who need to be supervised.
