YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
“My playgrounds usually arise from an emotion and are not based on objective deliberation although local conditions and functional requirements are naturally decisive parameters for creative landscape concepts. A playground can blend in harmoniously or set an intended counterpoint. I take the preliminary planning very seriously, but I also take the liberty of allowing myself to be less earnest and have some fun. My playgrounds are intended to offer a story which not only children can interpret, but which should inspire fantasy in everyone.” Diplom-Designer Hans-Georg Kellner, from the company Kellner.Spiel, has turned the 500 square-metre plot next to the life-style Hotel Kameha into an enchanted, colourful play-world. Oak beams painted in a range of pastel shades reach up to 6 m high to provide playing and climbing opportunities, stimulating motor functions and even encouraging adults to climb them.
The central play-idea “Driftwood – play-wood” came to Hans-Georg Kellner after his first visit to the site. “A playground is always a space in a space … in free space, in a public space. It has a characterising effect on the immediate environment. In order to create successful, i.e. attractive interplay, I always set the landscape pertaining to the playground. First associations often spring from the effect which the location has on me. What is a closer association here than the Rhine? A river which carries things with it along its course, which washes up flotsam and jetsam, heaps it up and then pulls it down again, overcomes hindrances, forks, flows together and continues on its way.”
The implementation of this imaginary mind game required 14 cubic metres of oak, 150 supporting frames made of stainless steel, 100 m of steel cable, 90 screws and 25 litres of solvent-free acryl paint in six pastel shades. This was used to create a spatial structure which flows slightly down the hill forming a compact centre (beaver lodge?) which thins out towards the edges.
From the swings the Rhine view gains a particular motion while climbing the beams provides a special point of view and viewpoint. The variety of such a playground is very important to ensure differentiated activities are available for all age groups.
Kellner formally regards the playground as a sculpture which must be processed with all the senses and which provides a kind of sensuality in order to appeal to the childrens’ senses - to provide climbing attractions so that children can test and expand their motoric capabilities. “It is important to me to provide a certain amount of play risk so that each child can sound out its own play fun limits. Of course, risk demands a high level of responsibility, which is why the whole playground facility has been checked according to safety technology and is certified to correspond to the appropriate valid standards,” states Kellner.
In this way children can make use of playgrounds created by Hans-Georg Kellner in Ascona, Basel, Berlin, Damnoni on the island of Crete, Erfurt, Leipzig, Locarno, Plose in Tirol, Zurich, recently on Sylt, soon in Munich and now also in Bonn.
Daniela Dierker / TM
Photos: TM
