Takino Suzuran Hillside Government Park Children's Valley Playground_rosa_barba

Takino Suzuran Hillside Government Park Children’s Valley Playground

Introduction

Children bodies are full of sensibilities. They react to many things that happen around them and they grow by interacting with them. Those experiences in their childhood will influence the children’s life a lot, not only their physical and mental health, but also their creativity, sensibility, and the respect to the nature. All of these things will grow while they play in the nature with freedom. The Landscape architect has a very important role to expand those possibilities.

Nature Playground

The aim of this project was to create a place where children can play freely in the natural environment. The idea of the Nature Playground is fundamental. Children today have less experience with the wild environment and would feel helpless to play in the forest with no previous experience. To help them adjust to play in the forest gradually, we have prepared five stages. This area planned a first stage playground. The space was designed to release children from their everyday life chores and awaken their senses before entering the forest. 
 

Wonders of the nests of the living things

The basic theme for the playground is nests. Images were inspired from the nests of various living things. They were developed to provoke adventure and creativity, and in super sizes so children can run around feeling as if they have become one of the small living things. Most of the facilities are covered with green and soil to unify with the surroundings. The forms include a tower of ant hives, an ant hive tunnel, the dome of a rainbow nest of mid-air birds, and fluffy eggs. 

Ant Tower

After deciding on the theme of the playground, we spent time to study and found a lot of impressive things and wisdom from the living things. Ant tower has a ventilation tube which helps with the air circulation in their nest. The upper part is warmer and the lower part is kept cool where the ants keep their food and eggs in the cool environment. It is surprising to know how clever they are. Then, we developed our design with a 1:30 scale model to create an interesting space and it came out as the playground with all the senses. The children can feel the sounds, temperature, texture, light and darkness. The height of the tower was decided in a ratio of children as ants.

Refer to Figure 4 and Figure 5.

Organic forms of ant hives were measured by computer from the model and drawn by using the data measured, then constructed by using the truss wall construction method.

Hand woven hammock

The net play environment of the rainbow nest dome was made in collaboration with a fabric artist, Toshiko Macadam. This huge hammock is an image which came from the spider’s web and it is all hand woven. Children have the opportunity to experience an artistic environment with beautiful colors and forms with a soft movement. These will give a lot of opportunities for the children to jump around, move, and play.

Refer to Figure 6.

Air balloon

Huge air dome made by balloon with tent material creates an interesting play environment. Jumping, rolling, running, and sliding are all different movements and actions. The latest technology has been applied into our design in order to encourage children to play and interact with the space with their entire body, which creates a new type of experience for them.

Refer to Figure 7.

Bird Nest Tower

The form of this play are is inspired by the bird’s nests in midair. It is intended to be designed for kid’s secret hideout. Children can enjoy different scale of this spaces and sense of enclosure.

Refer to Fig 8

Showa Memorial Park Children’s Playground

Fog

Irrigation nozzles are used to create this fog playground. When the fog is generated, we won’t be able to see the environment in its entirety. However, we can see what we don't get to see usually which is humidity and the gentle movement of of air. The fog playground provides a place for children to play with a different kinds of senses. Refer to figure 9.