Urban Playground

Urban Jungle: Allows for hanging or walking between rubber vines. (Ideal for hide and seek)

Project Details

• Project Name: Prospective Playground
• Client / end user: Children age 3 to 8
• Project Type: Public furniture
• Principal Designer/s: Alain Gilles, Cecile Fidalgo, Mathilde Leroy
• Date of commencement of project: October 2004
• Date of completion of project: February 2005
• Usage environment: Playground

Antzzz or the little community: Open, closed or linked structures.

Words from the designer

"Young children acquire most of their social behaviors through the act of playing. Thus the playground and the facilities therein stand quite important. In large urban cities, the playground is often one of the few outdoor places children have free access to.

Cosmosphere: sunlight shines through tiny holes made into the sphere and creates the image of a sky full of stars.

Too often, playgrounds tend to be boring and remain more or less deserted. To counter this, we came up with the idea of various stand-alone solid structures as elements in the playground. Those can then be moved around within the playground. Or even between different playgrounds - making for a livelier, changing environment.

But for this to function flawlessly, all elements need to be interchangeable. So we thought of a constraining grid. The grid was literally transferred to the actual ground as a series of studs. Evenly embedded within the foundation of the playground, the grid then becomes a parameter that determines the size and shape of each game.

Culbuto: Up to four kids can shake the tree like structure and reap the benefits of their effort.

Most of the proposed construction requires easily accessible technology (metalwork, rotation molding, PUR foam, recycled rubber…), making it economically feasible. This is important, to make the playground a reality. And also accessible, to a larger economic cross-section of society.

Boulo Modulo: Big memory foam balls in which children can leave their imprints for a little while.

The various elements of the playground are designed to encourage communication and team work; at the same time the importance of being independent."

Credits

• Text and photographs: Courtesy, the designer
• Compiled by Varun M. Ajani