Project Details
The goal is to design and build imaginative and artistic play spaces in order to improve the education, wellbeing and safety of children in need. The aim is to encourage imagination, play and self-expression in children as they develop into the future leaders of their communities. Creating a heathy society begins with creating healthy children.
The playground will come to be through the collaboration of multiple communities working collectively to create a space that will serve and be used by the community for years to come. The playground will be permanently installed at an eager, underfunded school, orphanage or community center in in need in Chiapas, Mexico. It will contain imaginative adaptations of common playground equipment such as swings, seesaws, and slides as well as other less common play elements like tire vines, tire pyramids, tire creatures, climbing frames, children spaces and more. While there is a general playground design, the final product and layout will be planned and designed with the children from the communitys direct involvement. In this way the playground will be sure to meet the needs of its users and respond to the particular site. It will provide a safe space to creatively explore the world through play and offer constant opportunities for learning, from design to daily use, by allowing children a space for experimentation, problem solving, creative thinking, conflict resolution and so on. The site will be on vacant land owned by the receiving community. It will be safely built in consultation with Playground Ideas using recycled tires, locally sourced wood, recycled ceramic tile, steel, minimal cement, lots of colorful paint, and other locally purchased decorative art. The play elements will be surrounded with educational mixed use green space and vegetable gardens, shade trees, comfortable seating and picnic tables where the community can gather.
