Adventure Playground
Proposal for St. Paul’s Adventure Playground in Bristol
A 2021 proposal for complete redevelopment of the popular Adventure Playground in the St. Paul’s area of Bristol.
1. Play Value
Our proposed playground is packed with different activities and ways to engage with both the play space and with friends. The structures can be thought of as a prescribed challenge - a ‘Ninja Warrior’ style assault course, or elements can be dipped in and out of, on a more impulsive and creative level. We believe this will attract and inspire a wide range of visitors, seeking different rewards from play.
2. Inclusion
Wheelchair users can traverse the circular ramp, which rises to 5.2m and includes an undulating ‘white water’ bridged section from which they can call down to friends below. We feel that this will be an exhilarating and inclusive experience. Less adventurous children can play creatively around the castle-like structure; on balance beams and the lower climbing wall holds. They will find an abundance of mini adventures and narratives around the multifaceted structure, whilst competitive and athletic users are very well catered for around the Ninja course. Alongside the existing young children’s apparatus, our design caters for everyone; even adults will find fun and challenge in the Ninja course!
3. The ‘Ninja’ Circuit.
With two, or at times three, routes around the circuit offering different levels of difficulty (and minimizing bottle neck hold ups), children can choose their level of challenge and set their own goals and competitions between friends. There is a wide range of physical and cognitive challenges, assuring nobody need feel intimidated, hurried or, indeed, under-challenged.
4. Health and Fitness.
Our design encourages lively engagement and exertion from people of all physical abilities. Teenagers, young children and wheelchair users will all have their heartbeats raised!
When engaged with as a prescribed challenge, we foresee the Ninja Circuit attracting a lot of repeat visitors as people seek to better their performances and compete with friends. We feel that this encouragement and accessibility of sporting activity is incredibly important. It is an exciting and worthwhile opportunity to promote it in the heart of the city.
5. Flow around the playground
There’s a lot of activity in the playground, and our design accommodates a large number of children on many different journeys; around the circuit, headed toward the Tango Swing and in small static groups. From the high walkway, children will be able to watch the Tango Swing and engage with friends on the ground. The roofed tower is the pinnacle of the playground and can be accessed from the ground or the raised walkway. It will create a central destination for those playing creatively or athletically.
User Involvement
We will run a day of workshops as part of the budget to get some of the children that will be using the site involved in the making.
This would involve producing a number of the staves for the railing around the ramp. These would be made from either oak or Sweet chestnut and would evolve splitting staves from the logs then shaping them with a draw-knife. This is a very popular activity with all ages and, despite the look of it, safe when supervised. We have run lots of these workshops in the past and are lucky to have experienced workshop leader James Beatty in our full-time team.
