Renovation and Expansion of Purpose-Built Outdoor Play Spaces for Childcare Centre’s repeat project
In undertaking another renovation for our valued client, the CEO of a Childcare organisation committed to providing purpose-built natural outdoor play yards, we faced some challenges related to access and the preservation of existing trees. Despite these slight obstacles, we successfully implemented a range of improvements while seamlessly integrating existing elements.
The newly introduced Active Play area features a large custom-designed raised circular fort embedded into an embankment, showcasing existing tree features. This includes a bush pole ladder, a timber bridge with Perspex barriers, Peek-a-Boo holes for a telescope and steering wheel, and a slide leading to synthetic turf with a softfall underlay. Leveraging the natural slope of the land, we installed stepped decks with bush pole barriers, rock climbing timber with climbing nodes, climbing ropes, and a new garden bed with fixed rock and upright log steppers.
Another welcome addition is The Traffic School, transforming an underutilised space into an engaging multifaceted environment for physical activity, imaginative play, social interaction and learning. The area now consists of concrete bike paths, complete with white-painted line markings, turning lanes, pedestrian crossings, traffic signs, parking bays, gas stations, and a central roundabout. We carefully integrated new low trees and grasses while retaining existing plants and surfaces in the area.
The Access Path now boasts a meandering rubber path down the slope, sandstone-coloured to match the existing path, along with a garden bed featuring upright logs to retain mulch. Log and Cypress balance beams adorn the lower slopes, and Cypress square arbours elegantly span over the path. In the Bush Play Garden, small trees with groundcover underplanted areas were strategically designed to allow for the creation of natural goat tracks, enhancing the overall play experience in this thoughtfully renovated outdoor space.
