Designing A Bamboo Playground

The name of my bamboo project is Play Place, it is a playground and is 176 sqm.

Play Place challenges the typical playground setting that we often see in our communities. What inspired the idea was the observation of the lack of activity in our own village playground. The space allocated was very open to the hot sun, bland in its play equipment, and lacking the quality of creativity and imagination. Less and less children are playing outside perhaps due to the rise in heat from climate change or the growing fascination with computer games.

Outdoor play in childhood is important, and therefore how can we create playgrounds in communities that are more inviting, to allow creativity to flourish? Building a playground using bamboo would allow children to immerse themselves in an environment that is less artificial. It also provides the opportunity to create interesting forms and shapes that can inspire imagination and reactivate dull community spaces as a place of gathering. It changes the idea of a typical playground with plastic and metal play equipment - materials that are actually painful to touch when exposed to the hot sun in the afternoon.

The Play Place is meant to be a space that is warm and inviting for children to play in while activating a social space that members of the community can also enjoy as a place of gathering. It aims to be a model that can easily be replicated in different communities including areas where the members of lower social classes reside. A lightweight structure with materials that are widely available in our country not only makes the structure more sustainable but also gives character while providing an open space that shelters from the hot sun and rain. It aims to create an experience that feels as natural as simply playing in nature.

The project brief calls for creative movement and play through the space which inspired the idea to keep the structure organic in shape to encourage imagination in play. From the rigid straight lines of the concept model, I played around with imagining the space like a forest with trees towering over it as inspiration.

One of the challenges I faced with the final model was the roof. It had to give character to the structure while providing proper shelter from the sun and rain. I went with a shape similar to the petals of a flower; with the roof lifting upwards by the openings to the structure, inviting people to enter the space. I learned a lot from our facilitators and speakers and their guidance and willingness to answer all our questions contributed greatly to my design process all throughout.

The species chosen for the structure are those that are widely available in the Philippines. Bambusa blumeana (Kawayan Tinik in vernacular) and Dendrocalamus asper (Botong in vernacular) were chosen for the main structural elements. For the roof, a three-layer system is employed similar to what we learned through the course. Nipa palm for the outer layer, asphalt membrane for the middle layer, and sawali (bamboo matting weaved with thin strips) for the inner layer which will be the ceiling finish seen from inside the structure. Nipa palm roofing and sawali are materials locally made in the Philippines.

“Doing this conceptual project (which I hope to build in the future!) was a really great learning exercise and aided in putting what we learned to practice.”

It’s hard to choose just one module from the course as my favorite. There were valuable takeaways from each module from learning about the different species and harvesting sustainably to learning structural principles to the design philosophies shared by Elora Hardy and her team. It was a well-rounded course and learning from the local artisans as well was amazing.