城市操场丨英国伦敦丨McCloy + Muchemwa

2023/07/21 12:00:00

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Architect：McCloy + Muchemwa

Location：London, UK; | ;View Map

Project Year：2023

Category：Streets;Parks;Playgrounds

The Urban Playground was commissioned by EC BID for the London Festival of Architecture 2023 to be free and open to everyone.

The project is essentially an urban experiment, establishing a common ground between children and tight-suited city workers - The Urban Playground brings new life, a flip of perceptions, and is a case-study in reimagining the role of urban sites from different and diverse perspectives, in this case specifically those of children.

The play structures were designed to be eye-catching, and when laid out as a ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ would lead visitors and passers-by on a journey through a linear pedestrian street - encountering intriguing moments and informal gathering spaces in the shade of trees.

As designers we were interested in creating abstract play structures that cater inclusively to younger and older audiences - sometimes they would have things in common, sometimes they would have differences we thought. We were keen to see how certain abstract design geometries translated into inhabitation, dwell time, and play!

A system of interlocking ‘blob’ and ‘block’ forms was inspired by wooden children’s toys. The design process started with two simple 1.8m (W) x 1.8m (H) x 3m (L) blocks which the various play structures are all ‘carved’ from. The largest resulting play structures have interconnecting caverns and portholes, whilst the smaller pieces have forms that invite people to engage and explore in a variety of ways. These are scattered around the site creating opportunities for seating, open-ended play, or specific actions such as sliding. There is no right or wrong way to play here, nor is there any explicit narrative to follow - instead the design intent was to enable and encourage imaginative and physically varied play within a flexible framework.

It was important to create an accessible place for everyone, so the layout of pieces create different types of space; from elevated podiums for performing, to small intimate clusters where someone could simply sit quietly. Some spaces are tight and some are wide open. Small children feel naturally drawn to the installation as there are some spaces that only very small people can get into and sometimes the head height clearance is lower than a standing adult.

Materials were chosen for their bright colour, multisensory / multitexture appeal, ease of fabrication and environmental sustainability. The skeletons of the play structures are made from CNC cut OSB board and timber battens. These have been clad with a 97% natural raw material + CO2 neutral linoleum and with 100% natural heat treated expanded cork panels. The colour selection is limited to blue, lending coherence across a spread-out site. A few small areas of a non-shatter mirrored panel are included to add further diversity to the sensory experience and play opportunities of the installation.