BRANKSOME

It was difficult to fit everything into such a petite place, and considering the height of the play structure, the biggest challenge was creating enough room for safe
‘fall zones’ (there are strict requirements for these). Access was also problematic because it was located on a busy city street – and being a construction site – there were up to 100 people working at a time bringing in trucks, cranes, building materials and the like. Everyone was fighting for space.

The result was a low-maintenance, cute log park in an otherwise urban landscape. I love the contrast between the black climbing nets, the aged ironbark of the totems, and their rusted steel tops, The colours of this playground and its abstract form were strongly linked to the patchwork of bold colours and contemporary architecture of the hotel in the background.

We packed a lot into this little space: steel motifs, platforms to clamber up, a series of capped totems carved in abstract shapes, a framed climbing net structure, hand and foot ropes to allow exploring between poles and stepper logs to teeter across. All neatly finished with a small concrete pathway and some seating for parents to take a load off, and perhaps fight the jet lag while the kids worked off some pent-up energy.