YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
The play landscape that has been developed is right on a shoreline. In the winter it is under the water and in the summer it is within the children’s reach,” explains graduate designer Hans-Georg Kellner, who works for Kellner.Spiel.
The outstanding positioning to the sea, the vast Alpine panorama and the powerful landscape of rocks and water, as well as the chestnut forests - which are typical of the region - have a direct connection to the play areas. The playground thus becomes an expressive landmark.
The classical elements of five integrated stainless steel chutes, four different swings, stainless steel ladders, bars, three speaking tubes and numerous nets and ropes are discernable features of a “playground”.
And you can see the wood, lots of wood, a whole truckload full of large-sized climbing lumbers, which have been cut roughly with the chainsaw. Solidity, dancing on delicate steel tubes. No fleeting gestures, but a powerful naturalness, ageing with time, facing the years, the traces of the burning Ticino sun, the cloud bursts of springtime, high and low tides. A child’s game that is washed with all waters.
Lumbers which tell stories, crossing the space, they speak of the wind in the rocky gorges, the voices of the mountain regions or of the driftwood in the sea.
Like water and wind-induced shenanigans. Timber poetry for touching, climbing, hiding. And, in addition, water and sand in vast quantities.
What else can a “child” ask for than to play in the light and shade of this extensive structure.
It can be anything – a sun bed and a robber’s den, a sand castle, a breakwater and an observation deck, the nest for beautiful women in bikinis, young men in trunks and tanned forest helpers.
And who doesn’t want to climb up layered logs in the forest?
“Yes, we want people keen to take part and to make them curious and ask questions,” says Kellner.
Is it safe for our children? Will you get splinters? How are you supposed to get onto it? Why use so much material? Does it make sense?
Playing always has something to do with asking questions and risks. So, there isn’t anything level or comfortable. Every step is a hazard. Everything is a balancing act, even the construction appears to be fragile. Motor skills challenges as a child-like, borderline experience and pleasure, checked for safety and certified according to EN standards.
40 m3 oak heart wood, 240 running metres of stainless steel tube and 180 running metres of polyamide-coated steel cable were used. All connecting elements are made of stainless stain.
The load-bearing structural elements have been mounted onto the base place using heavy-duty dowels. The lumbers were artificially aged using ferric oxide and chalk, the surface was textured with the high-pressure cleaner and the edges were smoothed.
A 25 x 10 metre in-situ concrete plate forms the foundations, so that the wood does not become “driftwood” in high water, even though the idea came directly from the observation of the washed-up items found on the beach.
Everything is child’s play, quite simply!
