We work with teachers and pupils to transform their forlorn tarmac into beautiful, fun, sensory learning spaces. We create opportunites to explore, move and learn through play in integrated landscapes.
Our designs focus on sustainable, natural materials.
Kilmorie Primary School - early years playground, London Borough of Lewisham
By creating a two story tree house and den with wrap round ramp, the accessible route to classroom became part of the playable space, and we doubled the play area with the two levels. New planters for each class removed the need for barriers at entrance and changes of level. The sand pit was enlarged by rearranging the existing entrance configuration.
Contractor: Archers Landscape Ltd.
(Design and Build)
Mayflower Primary School - early years playground, London Borough of Tower Hamlets
A wide tramac expense edge by grass was transformed by integrating the play areas, creating changes of levels, a mud kitchen, reconfiguring and re siting existing timber house and bringing water play in to the mix.
Akiva Primary School, London N3: creative play opportunities and space for outside learning. Existing play boat and train were given a setting with the jetty, plimsoll line, scales and loose play bark pit. The train pulled up at a station, the tunnel a shaded seating spot.
Art integrated into public park: our rural idyll in the city, Sketltons Lane Park is adjacent to Brooks Farm. We imagined climbing trees and overlooking the river on a summer's day whilst animals wandered down the river's edge, overlooked by cattle grazing in the newly raised paddock. Our reality, a dry river bed with a series of animal footprints along the edge and resins casts with farmyard animals.
Wild life casts: armed with magnifying glasses and bug boxes we went with a year 5 class on a bug hunt, sketching in charcoal along the way.
Back in class we used our sketches to create layered collages which were then turned into metal plaques to create a trail around the new playground on the local housing estate.
Gates at Acacia Play park: we set up the project to link with the local secondary school's art department. Students worked on their ideas for the entrance gates and we selected a wide range of ideas and styles. The artist/blacksmith Chris Campbell completed the design, built and installed the gates.
Workshop - Gate Design and Screen: aware that our workshops primarily involved children and maybe their parents we thought we'd have a change and approached a local sheltered housing project. In the comfort of the communal lounge our enthusiastic artists, including Ken a former student at The Slade, enjoyed sketching and drawing.
Selected drawings were assembled for the artist blacksmith, Heather Burrell to design and build the new park gates and a back panel for the new entrance square.
Workshop - Paving Design: we ran a series of workshops with artist Sally Barker at the city farm near Abbotts Park.
We were creating special plaques to inset into the ground of the new deisgn. Tying in with our reference to the medieval monastery concept our paving featured earth, wind and sky.