“Playgrounds don’t need to look like the playgrounds of our parents. Plant-A-Ball parks with its simple repeated forms with subtle alterations reflected in the functionality of the spheres could become signatures for youth interaction, learning and fun. ” - David Cole Founder of Building Trust International

/ Diagrams

Playgrounds of today have become fields for designers to create safe and entertaining equipment that can foster imagination, activity, and fun for children and their parents. Contemporary play structures must address a multitude of developmental characteristics identified with growth and progression of childhood development -as well as conform to local government’s ordinances on safety. The task of enticing children outside to play has become more difficult with continued technological advancements that compete for children’s attention vs. the desire to be physically active

Plant-A-BALL PARKS creates a series of play structures that not only generate a sense of place, but also house a synergy of interventions at the site and city scale. The sphere is ideal for capturing the imagination of children as well as providing a versatile shape in which to encapsulate the proposed interior play program. A flexible primitive volume that can be manipulated into other platforms of play. The orbs height and scale provide adequate housing for the planting compartments above, as the shell’s design enables the trees and plantings space to grow through the membrane and stabilize itself with the existing sub-grade. This experimentation of play, integrated with ecology, provides an educational component for the children while they play amongst the BALLS.

 / Drawings

/  Project Team  

Jennifer Birkeland, Ilya Chistiakov, Marco Ciancerella, Nick Mitchell, Bernard Peng, Mattia Santi, and Jonathan A. Scelsa

/ Consultants

AKT II Structural Engineers

/ Project Info

/ Project Type - Folly Competition, Playscapes
/ Award - Honorable Mention
/ Client - Building Trust International
/ Project Date - 2013