Winter time here. Grey skies. Ice and snow on the ground. Wood fire keeping things toasty inside. Sledding and skiing as daily fun-time activities. Not bad! Now of course in the southern hemisphere it’s sunny hot summer and I still have a winter’s worth of summery pictures and stories from our New Zealand – Australia trip to share. But in the meantime I wanted to share an interesting playground design that Leon Smith (my playscape brother) and I collaborated on last week. As a break from our “traditional” playscape projects we decided to enter an international playground design competition for a school in Thailand that serves Burmese refugee schoolchildren. An interesting and beautiful opportunity…
The competition itself was sponsored by the Go Play Project http://www.goplayproject.org/ They are an amazing group that builds play spaces in developing countries and whose motto is “We build playgrounds where there are none and we work with others to do the same…” YES!
The Go Play Project works with local, low budget materials (tires) and local builders to create colorful exciting structures and spaces. They were inspired by a friend and colleague of mine in the playground world, the late great Jimi Jolley. Here’s some info on him if you want to check him out: http://www.hawaiiplaygrounds.com/JimiJolley.htm He too built playgrounds from local and free materials – again mostly tires. Here is his how-to book on building playgrounds from tires: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20948584/HOW-TO-MAKE-PLAYGROUND-USING-TYRES
He was a unique character and I learned a lot about the community built process and about designing for play from him. I joined him on a playground build at a safe shelter for women and children in El Paso, Texas in 1998. While I had different ideas of what a playground should look like (trees, grass, flowers, mosaics, etc. vs tires) I was humbled at the end of the build to see that if you truly understand play and honor it as a designer you can create an environment out of ANYTHING and it will be great for children’s play and development. Jimi’s playground out of tires was GREAT and children flowed over the space in beautiful, meaningful, fun-loving ways. It was a total success, and a wonderful learning opportunity for a younger me just starting my new playscaping adventures…
So, it was a special opportunity for Leon and I to look back at Jimi Jolley’s ideas and inspiration and work on this design competition using…….TIRES! We also tried to blend traditional Thai and Burmese building techniques and materials (thatch roofs, banana palm trees, bamboo!!), gardens, food forests, and more into a design that weaves in all types of play opportunities for children of all ages, including an adventure playground-inspired “Creative Construction Zone” where children can build their own play structures and spaces. Yeah!
Enough words. Take a peek: (click to enlarge)
What do you think?
Thanks Rusty and Leon,
I just forwarded your blog to a friend building a playground in Malawi. The usual parameters: limited money and materials, beaucoup kids with heart.
great Bond. keep us posted! would love to see a Malawian playground…
Great design, guys! I love the variety of different environments in one space. I also like the sustainable-building aspect. We could definitely use these ideas when we make our way back to the Dominican Republic. I’ll make sure to send it on….
Thanks Rob. Yeah – when are we going to hear to DR together? What’s the latest with the orphanage project?
They have some play areas built, not to your plans, but they’re workable. It gives us a starting point, maybe we should take a trip this winter? I’ll get in touch with Kiki and Kieran, and let you know…
Tyres – is there anything we can’t use them for! The tyre maze looks interesting, but I think my favorite part are all the huts – and I love the digging area up in the corner. I can imagine it as a little hidden hive of activity. The food forest is an amazing idea, and so are the poles – I have a thing for poles at the moment 🙂
Awesome playground design, Rusty and Leon! Repurposing tires for the playground is not only cost-effective and environmentally friendly – but your play structures will be long lasting and enjoyed for many years. What a great way to bring play to so many. Nice work!
Thanks!!
Tires….
you CAN do fun things with them…. (did you see what the go play project people have done?) tires + SAWZALLs: lookout!
and yeah: I like that digging corner nook too. there is an existing tree right there that will provide some nice shade over that area. and POLES – I like them too. have you seen some of the cool pole sculptures from Frode’s tours in Germany?
Wow! Good luck on the competition for the Thailand Tire – Nature Playground. I love it and hope it (and you both) win. It looks great!!!
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Niki! you never know…. The only thing missing is MOSAICS!
Yes, that’s me! I’m the friend in Malawi. Very interested to see your tyre playground. Will check out the links in your article. The charity I volunteer for has some pre-schools where orphans can get a bowl of porridge and learn through play with some limited toys and games we have at each centre. We’d very much like to have an outdoor play space and I’m in the early stages of trying to get my head around what to do. Bond has very kindly pointed me in the direction of a number of articles (including this one) related to playgrounds. Any other ideas or suggestions would be happily received!
Your posts are so inspiring. I love all of the amazing things you are doing. I gave you a blog award today: http://childcentralstation.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-awards.html
WOW! That is amazing. What a great playscape. Love the use of the tires and how creatively you incorporated them. So many different areas too. Good luck with competition.
Stopping by from Child Central Station. Just checking out the other award winners; congrats!
Hi Steve! Keep us posted on your project. would love to help…
Thanks Amy!!
Thanks Abbie!
Awesome. Your design, your talents, and your generosity. I was dog paddling the internet to see what was out there about Jimi Jolley, and found this blog. He would certainly be proud and honored to know he continues to inspire adults to play like children. Jimi was my daughter’s preschool teacher in the early 1980’s. He remained a close friend until his death. A specialty of Jimi’s was to create playscapes for children of all abilities. He created playspaces that allowed children with special needs to play right along with all the others. Rarely was that an option in our city parks. His playgrounds were such a gift for my daughter and her friends, that I will always be grateful for his collaborative projects. Best wishes with this Thai project. It makes me wish I was three feet tall again!
That was a magic day that day. I was on duty patrolling the plrngaouyd at school when I saw about twenty children amassing the pile of leaves with a singularity of purpose. I wandered over to see what they were up to. They told me their plans and I watched as the pile of leaves grew. Some of the more game children were keen to jump from the branch but we came to a compromise and they swung from it. After each child had jumped they all worked together to plump the leaves once more. Those not keen on swinging from the branch ran at the pile and buried themselves in the leaves and then bunched them up again.I hovered to make sure that all went smoothly. The children worked out their own safety system with alternating swinging and running.I am really pleased I left the children to their own devices to work together and to sort out a safe way of having fun while challenging themselves.I could not have done a better myself and I bet that lunchtime was one to remembered for a lifetime.Allanah KingMoturoa ClassroomAppleby SchoolNelson, New Zealand